Shadow of a True Hero (up for adoption)
by Dr. ForgottenFables
Summary: Sam couldn't understand it, everyone expected so much for her. They believed her to be a hero who was destined to lead all of mankind through the darkness. But she had never been one to just do want people wanted her too. Luckily she has her shadow to keep her out of too much trouble.
1. Chapter 1

**I own nothing, not the characters, the space where this story exists, or even the eyes that you are using to read it. This is for entertainment purposes only, no money involved.**

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Sam tried to steady her breath as she looked out across the barren landscape of what would soon be the most bloody battlefield the world of Alayzard had ever seen. Looked upon the army of thousands of monstrous demons of varying size and shapes. Though she was only too aware that if she had just turned her head around, then she would be looking upon three armies of man who had come together under her leadership in order to make one final stand against the demon hoards.

They called her their 'Holy Woman', the proof that the gods had chosen mankind to survive. The entire thing was ridiculous. Sam was just a fifteen year old girl. How on Earth was she supposed to lead an army. Then again she wasn't on Earth anymore, she had been summoned to Alayzard and into the middle of this struggle for survival.

The demon king's castle was a terrible looking thing. Sam couldn't understand why the guy couldn't have just lived in a nice castle with a garden and a nice forest or something. Why is it that 'evil overlords' just had to live in blackened wastelands without a single piece of greenery.

Sam was choosing to focus on this issue. It was something that would keep everything else out of her mind, like the tens of thousands of people who would be dying that day, in her name no less. Sam tightened her grip on her sword and shield, closing her amethyst eyes in order to block out the world around her.

She couldn't look back, she couldn't stand to see the faces of the man and woman who believed in her so much that they would follow her to their deaths. As long as they were only looking at her back then she was the picture of a warrior princess, going into battle on her mighty war horse, dressing in pure black clothes with silver shoulder guards, guntlets and boots, wearing a silver circlet on her shoulder length black hair. But if she had turned around all they would see is a frightened little girl who would do anything to be back home where she could cry to her mother and father and admit she was scared.

She had never asked for any of this, she hadn't been prepared to be summoned. She remembered from reading the news back in her own world that about thirty years back, children ages five to seventeen started to vanish from Earth. Some eventual returned revealing the fact that they had been summoned to other worlds and that they had been shown and taught wonderous things while there, giving them magical powers and other such things. But the percentage of people who did return home using the 'Otherworld Gates' was extremely low, barely five percent. The others either decided to stay in the worlds that they had been summoned too, or much more likely they simply... dead.

Sam remembered all this. She remembered thinking that it was horrible and unjust. She remember being an activist against the use of such people as military weapons if and when they returned to Earth. But she had never dreamed that it would happen to her. And that was it, the entire last three months she had spent in this strange world seemed like a long dream were she couldn't seem to wake up. Actually, considering the situation she was in, it was more like a nightmare.

Guinevere, Sam's war horse, a mare that was as large and proud as any of the man war horse, seemed to sense her rider's unease and the pure white mare shifted about in its own apprehension. Sam tightened her legs on the saddle and pulled back the horses reins in order to try to keep control.

But before she could be thrown off another hand grabbed the reins from beside her horse and a calming presence moved over both horse and rider. "Don't worry Guinevere, steady there." Danny whispered to the horse and he let go of the reins, trying to pass the action off as nothing so that it wouldn't discredit Sam in front of her men.

Danny looked up at her, his blue eyes as clear as calm water stared right through her as he gave her a gentle smile. He couldn't say anything, couldn't make it look like she needed his support, but the look in his eyes spoke loudly enough. 'Don't worry Sam, I'm here for you.'

He was always there, right by her side. Within a week of her being summoned, he had managed to track down the Observant to call in a favor for helping them recapture Vortex. He wanted to use their all seeing eyes to find out which world Sam had been summoned too. And when they had refused to help him, he... persuaded them. After finding the name of the world he was looking for he used the infinity map in order to reach her.

She could still remember it, the Demon King had sent a massive giant to crush the capital, wanting to put an end to her and the hope that her summoning had represented for the world. Sam had thought everything was lost, but Danny showed up, just in the nick of time to stop the giant and save the day.

Despite this, it was Sam that everyone looked to. She had already been introduced to them as the summoned hero, and the nobles didn't want to admit that it was someone else who did the job. Or maybe the real reason was because Danny was not entirely human. Either way, Sam was the one that they put their hopes in. She was the 'Holy Woman' who would bring them victory, while Danny was her nameless shadow, standing forever at her side. She was the visible hero, and he was the invisible one.

At first he had wanted her to return to Earth with him, but when she had voiced a wish to help save the people before she left, he had promised to stay with her.

Sam smiled to herself, the presence of her oldest friend gave her courage, just like it always did. Even more so now that Danny had finally hit a growth spurt since they had both turned up in this strange world. He had shot up an entire foot, and even those he wasn't his father's nearly inhuman seven foot two inches, he was still nothing to laugh at when he stood six feet tall. His broad shoulders were much more obvious since he now wore a sleeveless black top, and the two months of training they had gone through had helped add some muscle to his bones. Twin long sword made of glistening ice rested in leather straps on his back, their edges tinted red from the blood that seeped into them during the months of use. But even so, he was still clearly Danny, his messy black hair and goofy smile told Sam that much.

"My Lady, the army are in formation and awaiting your command." Sir. Dennis, a gray haired knight with pointed ears informed Sam as he rode up behind her.

"Then give them my command." Sam said clearly, finding her voice was steadier than her heart. "We are ending this war today!" She shouted, and as her voice rang out a horn blew. The call was echoed throughout the army and moments later several fireballs rained through the air, the mages had started their assault on the Demon King's castle, though the magic that surrounded the castle deflected the brunt of the attack. In truth, it was little more than them knocking on the door, tell the Demon King that the game was on.

The sound of wing beats filled the air and a torrent of winged creature flew out from behind the castle, so numerous that their wings made it seem as though night was falling as the creatures filled the sky.

"They are coming! Stay ready and don't let them see your backs!" Sam shouted as she urged her horse forward in a charge. She could hardly hear the sound of her horse's hoof falls as her army pressed forward, hundreds of voices crying out a wordless battle cry. But she could still feel Danny gliding along side her, quiet as a shadow. The small flash of light told her that if she turned her head she would see white hair instead of black and green eyes where there had once been blue.

The winged demons were almost upon them when Sam closed her eyes and channeled her magic into the earth beneath them. The magic worked fast and great vines over fifty feet in length shot from the ground and began to sweep through the air, swatting at the demons. Some of the planets released spores that blinded the creature, causing them to fall from the sky and crash helplessly upon the soil where they would be trampled to death under the horses.

Realizing that they needed to fly lower to avoid the spores, several of the demons began to dive bomb the cavalry with long jagged spears, and being at the head of the charge, Sam was targeted for the worst of the attack.

Her silver blade whistled through the air as she slashed out at the first of the demons but just as soon as she had dealt with the first monster, four more took its place. Quickly casting a protective charm, Sam through up a barrier around herself. The demon's flocked around the bubble, snarling at Sam with twisted bat like faces. She winced with the effort of maintaining her shield as the monsters bashed at it with their weapons.

But before they could break through Danny was on them, his frozen blades cutting straight through their hides, causing blood to spray through the air. Sam watched at the read liquid splattered across the black soil. She was no long squeamish on the subject of killing. She had been made to grow up.

"Thank you." She said to Danny as he returned to her side, throwing his ectoblasts through the air at any of the demon's that dared to come too close. Sam glanced back over her shoulder at the human army, watching the siege towers being pressed forward.

She needed to clear the path to the walls. They needed to break through if they were to defeat the Demon King. As soon as he was dead, the driving force that united the demon clans with disappear and the threat to the humans would pass. The king was the only piece that truly mattered.

But as she watched, the ground seemed to rise up and take the form of a massive creature with a hunched back and no visible face. "Golems!" A cry sounded from the nearby men. The monsters ignored the humans cries and targeted the siege towers.

"Protect the towers!" Sam shouted as she pulled on her horse's reins, turning the beast to go galloping towards the nearest living mound of dirt. She chanted a few words and a magic circle appeared beneath the golem. Vines shot up from underneath its body, wrapping around its legs and working its way up the arms, pulling the giant of stone down to the ground with a crash that shook the earth.

Sam grinned with the small victory as the siege tower started to more forward again, but she was shocked out of it when a snarl came from behind her.

While her eyes had been towards the sky, dealing the with winged demons and the golems, she hadn't noticed as several smaller ground units had rushed them from some caves in a nearby rock formation.

The smaller dark clansmen jumped through the air, startling Sam's warhorse, but they simply bounced off of a vivid green bubble that appeared around the girl. Moment's later they were swiftly dealt with by Danny's blades.

"Sorry, I should have been paying more attention." Sam said as she regained control of her mount. "We just need to buy a bit more time for the..."

"He's here." Danny said seriously his eyes locked on a point just in front of the dark castle.

A raging column of pitch black fire shot through the air and reduced the siege tower to burning splinters in an instant. Sam's head whipped around and she say him, flouting above the ground a few hundred feet away.

It was the first time she had ever laid eyes on the dark king, but there was no mistaking who he was. Galious glared out at them, his crimson hair and eyes easily noticeable from miles away, dark flames wrapping around his very human-like body over his heavy armor and midnight cape. He was a figure that demanded attention, the most powerful demon king who had ever lived.

Sam swallowed hard as his dark magic swept over the land. She could vaguely see some of the other human soldiers turning and running for their lives, all the conviction they had melting away in the face of this monster among monsters. Sam was scared, she wanted to turn away. She knew that as the visible hero, she would be his first target.

But just as always Danny's strong presence pushed away her fears. "Wish Pariah had been kind enough to meet me outside his front door. This will save us a lot of trouble." Danny said grinning up at Sam. "We had to fight him sooner or later. Better make it sooner before we tire ourselves out." Sam's fears melted away. She nodded.

Of course they would have to fight Galious. That had been the entire point of all of this. "Lets go." Sam agree. Then she pushed her mount forward, casting a shield around her so that the dark clansmen were pushed side as she and Danny made their way towards the dark king.

She might not have been a real hero. But she would make sure that everything ended the way it was supposed to.

The dark clansmen didn't even try to stop Sam's charge, after the first few were batted aside by her barrier, the other simply stepped aside to clear a path for her and Danny to their king. Apparently Galious believed that the fight would end up being between the Overlord and the Hero. Sam wouldn't complain. Every moment that the Demon King continued to breath another death was added to each side of the battlefield. For the sake of everyone involved they had to finish this as quickly as possible.

That said, running straight through the mass of demons could hardly be called comfortable. The knowledge that the only things that stayed their attacks were their master's orders and the rumors of her overwhelming power, power that she didn't really have. The tales of her exploits where more that a little tall, spread mostly by the church and the royal families in order to increase moral. Though after some time Sam found that her enemies actually believed the stories that were told about her. That she was some kind of higher being who could wipe out entire armies with a single swing of her sword. It was ridiculous.

Though when the two of them came within the last five hundred feet or so of their target, there path was finally barred by two demons of the apeman tribe. The hairy beast people stood in front of the two young heroes, tall as African Elephants with bladed staves that were made of solid bronze metal.

"Halt!" The two shouted in unison.

"Out of the way! Your king is expecting us!" Sam shouted, though she did pull on her reins, bringing her horse to a stand still as she gripped her short sword. Magic words started to play in the back of her mind as the got a magic circle ready, just incase they attacked.

"Only the hero may pass! The boy stays to die!" The demons said together.

Sam blinked as she tried to figure out what they meant, then it dawned on her. They meant that they wanted her to fight Galious alone... without Danny. "You can't be serious!" Sam shouted angrily, her eyes glanced around to see that the surrounding army was prepared to jump down on her friend the moment she was out of the way. She couldn't leave Danny to fight all of them alone. She couldn't fight Galious without him.

"Sam, you go ahead. I'll catch up once I'm done with this peanut gallery." Danny said, as he took in the situation. The demons laughed but Danny confidently lifted his swords, prepared for the moment they decided to strike.

"But Danny..." Sam mumbled.

"Remember the plan, Sam. We've been preparing for this day for a month. You can do this, and as soon as I'm done here I'll rush over to back you up." Danny said giving his confident grin. "Just make sure you don't do anything too reckless."

"That's my line." Sam said with a soft sigh, though his words had rebooted her brain. The plan, yes there was a plan. "Alright, just make sure you take care of them quickly." Sam said as she steered her horse forward, the two large ape demons letting her through before turning on Danny.

Danny gave a small gulp as he stopped trying to act as if he wasn't nervous. But the shiver didn't last long. "Who's first?" Danny said with a stupid grin. A wave of demons coming crashing down around him. Danny crossed his two icy blades and they erupted onto bright green flames as his spiritual energy pulsed through them. "Take this!" Danny roared as he spun about, sending a circle of the destructive green energy pushing out from around him, blasting the demons back and ripping the ones that failed to put up an anti-magic barrier in time in half.

"What was that?" One of the demons gasped in surprise. He was pushing himself up, a hand pressed to his bleeding temple were he had smashed his head into the ground. "I didn't see a magic circle."

"Magic was never really my thing." Danny said in a off handed manner before driving his right headed blade through the back of the monkey's neck. The thing sputtered in surprise before falling down dead. Danny pulled out the blade and turned to see a dozen fireballs flying at him from his enemies.

Danny channeled some of his cold energy into his left sword and swung it in a wide arc, creating an icy wind that blasted the fire magic in all direction. The ground around the swing froze over as the blade passed through the air. The ice continued to spread, causing some of the nearer groundlings to freeze over before they could get away.

"He! He isn't a human!" A demon shouted in panic. The words stung a little, but Danny ignore them, he had work to do if he was going to catch up in time. "How about you all come at me at once! It will save me a bit of time!" Danny taunted, crossing his blades again and starting to channel more power into them. They glowed bright green. "Don't worry Sam, I'll end this quickly, so just hold on."

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There was an empty patch of land a hundred feet across just underneath where the king of the dark clans flouted in the air, his dark cape flowing in the wing and he looked down at Sam's progress.

Sam slowed her progress as she drew closer, the fact that she was standing alone in front of the single most powerful Dark Lord to ever appear was causing her to get nerves feet. "Just remember the plan. Remember the..." Sam stopped muttering to herself as the dark king started to lower himself to the ground in front of her.

He was bigger than any human Sam had ever seen, standing a head and shoulders above even the giant Jack Fenton. His dark red eyes stared at Sam as he sized her up, and Sam must have failed as the demon scowled. "So you are the one that the humans refer to as 'hero'." The demon said. Sam was actually surprised by his voice. It wasn't nearly as dark or conceded as she had been suspecting. It was a deep, sad voice, carrying the cares of a world on its back. Sam almost wanted to stop and ask him why he was fighting in the first place, though it was neither the time or the place for such talk. "The human's 'goddess of victory'. You're just a simple girl, barely any older than my own daughter. And yet those selfish bastards throw you to me and flee for there lives. Disgusting cowards."

Sam took a swallow, building up her famous stubborn pride until she could find her voice again. "Yeah right you old fart! I'm not here as a sacrifice! I'm here to kick your ass!" She said as she built up her magic and pointed her sword at the demon king. "So do you have any preference on how you are displayed!? Because if not I'm just going to mount your butt on the wall of your castle once I take it!"

Galious looked a little taken aback by the outburst, as if he couldn't believe what he had just heard. But then he broke into rather good willed laughter. "You show spirit girl! Truly the stories of your noble grace are the tales of liars!" He laughed long and hard about it. "But that matters not. For how you care yourself does not a hero make. Nor does the prayers of the people you fight for." Galious's right hand shot out and dark flames gather around it before clearing to reveal a long black sword, at least ten feet long, wider on the top than the handle so most of the weight was pushed towards the tip to harden the swings. Dark red line decorated its face but it was otherwise dark as a starless night sky. "No, only a Dark Lord can truly name a hero! So prove onto me that you are worthy of the title, girl from lands beyond!"

Sam had been ready for it, but it didn't make the Demon King's attack any less terrifying.

As the dark sword swung around in a wide arc, pitch black flames emanated from it, turning into a roaring inferno that shot across the empty landscape towards Sam.

Calling on her magic, Sam produced a large network of vines that sprang from the ground between them, forming a wall to protect her from the flames.

Sam could only gasp as the heat from the attack leaked through her wall of greenery and pressed against her, pushing the air from her lungs and stinging her eyes. But even though the fire was intense the vines had been covered in a naturally accruing oil that resisted the flames, making them fire proof.

Once the fire dead down the wall opened up, extending towards the sky to reveal several pods on the top of them which Sam commanded them to throw at Galious. The pods sailed through the air towards the demon but not nearly fast enough to take him by surprise. He neatly cut each one of the five cannonball like pods in two, stopping them from reaching his body. Sam grinned. It had been just as she had been hoping for.

Each of those pods had been filled with an airborne toxin that would weaken the reflexes of anyone who inhaled it, and as time went on its effects would get steady stronger. Now that the poison was all over his weapon it would be feed into his lungs as the fight continued. Now all she had to do was draw the fight out until the demon king was to confused to walk in a straight line.

"Is that the best that you can do, girl from lands beyond?" Galious said angrily. "And the kingdoms of man dare to ordain you a hero?"

"After today is done I don't give two shits about what those idiots think." Sam said watching the king, preparing a defensive spell to counter whatever his next attack might be. "In fact, I think the first thing I'm going to do once this is all over is going to be to tell all those stuck up nobles to castrate themselves and do the universe as a whole a favor."

The demon king paused, letting those words roll through his mind. "Are you sure you are the hero I'm supposed to be fighting and not one of my own generals?" The king questioned Sam with a raised eyebrow. "Sorry its just... I was expecting something... I don't know..." The king rubbed the back of his neck. "Forget it. I'll just finish this quickly."

Sam stiffened as Galious prepared to charge. She quickly created a magic circle, filling it with as much spiritual energy as she could spare and let it loose. The vines leaped from the ground, but to Sam's surprise they were not fast enough. Galious rocketed over them and straight at Sam who raised her shield to block the brunt of the attack.

The blow shook her entire body as she was launched off of her horse to fall hard against the rough barren earth. Sam let a hiss escape her lips as she skidded across the dirt, peeling away her skin. Only the magic infused in her body stopped her from breaking every bone in her body.

"You are no hero." Galious said as he turned to her. "You are weak. Far too weak to every hope to beat me." He started to raise his sword again, dark flames appearing along the blade's edge and the symbol engraved on its face began to glow. "I wish you peace, girl from worlds beyond." Galious said, closing his eyes, as if he didn't wish to see Sam's death by his hands.

But suddenly his eyes shot open again and he spun around, holding his sword pointing downwards, towards the earth. The sound of something heavy striking metal rang loud through the air and the air next to Galious's blade shimmered. "Here I thought I would sneak up on you. Shows what I know." Danny said with a grin, his two swords only inches away from Galious's side.

"You dare interfere with a battle between a Dark Lord and a hero?" Galious said, growling at Danny as he pushed his sword up, causing Danny to flip over the demon king to land next to Sam.

"You can think of me as a simple phantom." Danny said twisting his swords to the ready. "You alright Sam?"

"You're late!" Sam snapped as she pushed herself up. She winced as she felt her injured arm struggling to bare her sword. It was no good, she couldn't keep a hold on it, so she dropped her shield and switched the sword over to her left hand. "Would it kill you to be on time for once in your life?"

"Hey I'm not that late." Danny said indignantly. "Now how about we get this show on the road. For real this time." Danny said. His swords began to glow with bright green flames.

"Right." Sam replied, gathering up magic and creating more plants to launch her toxins.

"Teaming up on me? Not very noble of you." Galious said coldly. "No matter. Whether there are two or two hundred of you weaklings, the result will be the..." Danny didn't wait for him to finish. He rushed the Dark Lord, swinging his blades as rapidly as he could. The sound of his icy blades hitting metal went from being individual rings to being a contain noise as Danny refused to let up, striking over ten times a second as he used his aerial maneuverability to keep Galious from escaping his range.

But to his credit, the dark king was managing to keep up, even with his massive sword he was still fast enough to block every single blow from Danny's twin blades. Seeing an opening to counter, Galious focused spirit energy into his left hand, lifting it from his sword and creating a magic circle. Boiling hot water poured from the circle, blasting throw the air where Danny had just been, but the ghost boy had sensed the focusing of the energy and had jumped up into the air over the king before blasting downwards with one of his ectoblasts.

Galious was a little surprised by the speed of the attack. Their had been no channeling, no magic circle, and it seemed to have come from the boy's own body. Though it was unmistakably spiritual energy, the force that was most commonly used to fuel magic circles. But even with the speed of the attack, Galious was still able to block it.

Galious tried to turn to face Danny, but his found that his feet had been anchered to the ground by vines that had appeared through cracks in the soil. The plants had grown quickly and covered his chest within just a few moments. Galious pulled his right leg up, snapping the vines that held it to the ground, but before he could fully free himself, flowers appeared along the vines on his chest and released a enormous amount of pollen.

Galious coughed violently as the pollen filled his eyes and lungs but he could still feel Danny's power moving towards him and blocked a forceful attack that had been aimed for his head. But as he pushed the ghostboy away he was blind sighted by three more of the pods that Sam had shot at him earlier. The pods hit him hard and knocked him to the ground as they burst, covering the king in the toxins that filled the pods.

Danny tried to get in a quick strike on the king but a magic circle appeared beneath Galious and a gust of wind blew the invisible hero back. "Insolent... brats..." Galious said as he struggled to his feet, but he seemed to be swaying around as the toxins started to effect his balance. "Poison? You would use a cowards weapon? And you call yourself a hero!" Galious spat angrily, a line of drool coming from the corner of his mouth.

"Fair play is for idiots." Sam said with a grin, believing that they we on the verge of victory. "We know you are stronger than us, so we will do whatever it takes to beat you and saves the innocent. That's what it truly means to be a hero."

"Innocent." Galious growled. "What makes those humans anymore 'innocent' than my kin? They cast us out, force us to live on only the most barron of lands, treat us like nothing more than animal! What right do you have to judge us, interloper!" Galious's voice grew into a roar as a blood red magic circle appeared around his feet. The dark king's eyes glowed a sort of black light as dark flames leaked out from between his teeth. "I will not let my kin suffer any longer!"

Danny and Sam were rooted to the ground in shock as the demon's body began to grow. His clothes stretched and finally tore to pieces and his body was covered in a thick coat of red fur. His mouth pressed outwards and two ram's horns grew out of his head as his feet turned to goat hooves. By the time the transformation stopped the king stood nearly thirty feet tall and his sword witch had seemed to be a massive claymore before was now closer to that of a butcher knife to be swung with a single hand..

"Shit." Sam cursed as she realized what had just happened. The Dark Lord had quadrupled his size, meaning that in order to produce the same effects as before with the poison, they would need to use sixty times as much of the stuff.

"With your deaths I will secure the future for my people!" Galious scream filled the air as he swung his sword down to the grow with enough strength to shack to earth, releasing a shockwave of magic that flew straight towards Danny and Sam. They both put up shields, but the amount of power in the strike still blew them aside.

Galious turned towards Sam. "I will finish this. I will finish this!" A magic circle appeared above him, white as the light of the moon and electricity shot through the air, coiling around the demon's sword.

Sam had heard of this spell. It was Galious's signiture attack. A spell that was not composed of spiritual energy, but divine energy. Sam could do nothing but watch as the power grew stronger. She couldn't dodge lightning or out run it, and an antimagic barrier would do nothing against it, you couldn't stop divine power with a shield meant for spiritual energy.

"Die, girl from worlds beyond!" Galious roared as he brought his sword down, pointing towards Sam. The world seemed to slow down as Danny appeared out of thin air, standing between Sam and the on coming storm.

The attack hit Danny head on, and the boy let out a scream of pain. His clothes begin to smoke and holes appearing in them as they were burned away, his swords shattered and his hair was pushed backwards as the energy poured over him. "Danny!" Sam cried in shock as she saw his skin turning back and blood oozing out of the burns. It only lasted a second, but it took much longer than that for Danny to fall to the ground.

"Foolish boy. He will have dead for nothing." Galious said as he saw Sam running to her downed friend. But to the Dark Lords shock, Danny started to get back up.

"N...not going to lie. That is probably the second most painful electrocution I've ever head." Danny said as he pushed himself to stand up straight. His burned skin was being replaced before the demon's eyes.

"Impossible." Galious said, not believing his own eyes. But then he connected the dots. "You... you aren't a human are you? You are a spirit of damnation."

"We prefer the term ghosts." Danny said with a cocky grin. "And your still only half right."

"Danny, you sure you're okay?" Sam asked.

"Can't afford not to be." He answered, not taking his eyes off of the dark king. "I guess we are going to have to move onto plan B, huh?"

Sam's eyes widened. "Danny, your body is already hurt!"

"Don't worry Sam, I can handle it." Danny assured her. "We don't have a choice."

Sam hesistated for a second but then nodded. She placed one hand on Danny's back and took a deep breath. A magic circle appeared on Danny's back, just underneath Sam's fingers, and Danny's spiritual energy exploded.

Danny's spiritual energy was too pure to make magic circles himself, but if someone made one on his body, then he could pump it full of his energy in order to get extremely powerful results.

Danny's body glowed a shining white that was almost too bright to look at as his energy moved faster and faster. "Now then, lets start the real fight!" Danny shouted as he rushed Galious.

The Dark King tried to slash the boy but Danny slipped around it, and when he got close enough to Galious, he stopped and clapped his hands together. A snowstorm seemed to appear out of nowhere and engulf the two of them. And then in the blink of an eye, they were gone.

"Danny... please be careful." Sam said, thinking back to the Pariah's Dark incident. Danny had never been careful. Shaking her head she called on another magic circle. She had three minutes. She couldn't waste a second.

)))

Galious couldn't understand what was going on. He seemed to be standing in the middle of a blizzard. The roaring winds cutting him off from the world, he could neither see or hear anything else. "By the gods..." He said, glad for the thick red coat of fur that covered his body. The cold could have shattered steel.

Galious heard a low growl coming from behind him. Turning around he was forced to defend himself as a white wolf the size of a small horse jumped out of the airborne snow, long silver fangs flashing in the light that came from its bright green eyes. The wolf's teeth wrapped around Galious's right arm, trying to tear through the layer of iron fur that protected the Dark Lord.

Though the wolf was relitively small compared to Galious himself, the demon found that it was not a simple task to remove the wolf, he tried grabbing at it with his free hand and pulling it off, but its teeth were buried deep and all he managed to accomplish was further injuring his arm. Finally Galious raised the air the wolf was holding onto and brought it down with all his strength, crushing the wolf's head beneath his elbow.

To Galious's surprise the wolf vanished, bursting into a cloud of snowflakes. "What is going on here!?" He growled as he lifted himself to his full height. It wasn't until then that he saw dozens of bright green eyes staring at him through the wall of wind and ice. The growls if the wolves that surrounded him could barely be heard over the raging storm.

Before the beasts could attempt an attack, Galious summoned up a wave of black fire to push them back, dispersing the blizzard as he did so.

With the snow storm no long blocking his view, Galious could see where he was. The goat like demon's jaw dropped as he took in his surroundings.

He was in the middle of a frozen tundra that stretched out as far as his eyes could see with nothing but a few pillars of ice to stop it from being a completely flat and empty landscape.

The sky was something that he had a hard time wrapping his mind around, it was a vivid sight, a endless mixture of greens and whites swirling together so that any attempt to stare at it let the Dark Lord feeling a headache coming on. Twenty seven moons hang in the sky, each in a different lunar phase.

"Where... am I?" The king mumbled in shock.

"Welcome..." Danny's voice echoed through the air, catching Galious by surprise. The king looked around him, trying to find the organ of the voice. "This is the first time I've used this in actual combat. Not a skill that is easy to pull off and I can't do it as well as Clockwork or Pariah."

Galious finally found the boy, sitting on a pillar of ice a distance to his left, surrounded by six of the monstrous wolves that shared his green eyes and white hair. "What is this place? Where have you taken us, spirit?"

Danny grinned. "It has many names; the inner world, the bounded field, the dreamscape, territory, liar..." Danny said waving his hand as if to say 'so on and so forth'. "But in short you are inside of my soul. So again I say welcome. You're in my world now."

With a simply wave of the hand Danny's wolves went into a frenzy, rushing towards the Dark Lord, their paws making no sound as they fell on the icy landscape.

Galious growled himself, preparing for the pack that was almost on him. As the first of the hounds lunged for him, the demon jumped, pushing off the ground with his heavily muscled legs and jumping over fifty feet into the air, letting the wolves pass beneath him.

Galious brought out more of his dark fire magic, covering his blade with it and releasing it in an arc down onto the waiting wolves, blasting them into a white powder. Danny jumped down from his pillar, holding is arms out to each side and let his cold aura pass into his hands. His twin swords began to reform, longer than before, each a little longer than Danny was tall, making them just short of Galious's own massive sword. Danny rushed the king, and their blades clashed, sparks flying as the black flames licked at the frozen blades.

But to the Dark Lord's surprise, the blades didn't melt. "How can it be that your ice can withstand my flames?"

"I told you. You are in my world now. I make the rules here, and I say; ice does not melt!" Danny said as his pushed the king back. Galious may have had a huge weight and height advantage, but it seemed that neither meant anything in this strange world of ice.

Galious gave a cry of shock as a wolf formed behind him out of some drifting snow and took a bite out of his left leg. And even as Galious's hand flew down to slash at the creature with clawed fingers, three more appeared.

Galious was completely on the defensive, having to defend himself from both the spirit boy with his twin swords of ice and the fangs of his wolves. Mobility became his ownly option, depending on his large form to allow him to jump long distances to keep out of the middle of the mob where he would quickly have been surrounded and brought down.

He stroke down one wolf after another between blocking or parrying Danny's strikes. A few of the wolves managed to get a tooth into the king's thick fur, drawing some blood, but none had gotten deep enough to do serious damage before being destroyed for there insolence. But this gave Danny's swords the chances they needed to sneak through Galious's guard and get at his arms. With each new cut that the boy managed to land on the demon's arms, the Dark Lord became more and more worried.

This was insane. In this place, the boy was almost on the level of a god. How could he have just dismissed him as a human boy?

But as time went on the bright glow the surrounded Danny's body became fainter and fainter. And soon after, Galious noticed the child panting hard. "So, you cannot maintain this spell field of yours?" Galious said, rather relieved as he saw one of the wolves dissolve into snow without him slashing it.

"Suppose so." Danny said, not even bothering to deny it. "But I just need one solid hit to finish you off. I'm pretty sure I can manage it before my stamina runs dry."

"I would not be so sure, spirit child." Galious said as he bright his sword up into the air above him. He called again on the white magic circle. "I wonder if you can survive my attack now that you are so tired."

Danny straighten, holding his twin swords together on his right side. "Guess we'll find out." He said with a cocky smile. The blades began to give off bright blue and green light even as Galious's own sword came alive with electricity.

The two stood across from one and other, each wondering if the other's next attack would be the death of them. Dealing with the fear and the rush of the knowledge that the next few moments could be their last. The time leading up to the charge only lasted two seconds, but for each of them it seemed to drag on for hours.

Finally, they charged forward, bringing their blades to clash against each other. Divine power striking against spiritual power that had been focused to a near divine level. The two forces strained against each other, until one won out. Even if it had been Danny's world, built upon his ideals, the power of a divine being was simply beyond what he could stand up against. The lightning crashed through his blades for a second time and light up the sky of his world a pale white as Danny was forced back, defeaten.

* * *

"So you still breath. Your kind are resilient to be sure." Galious said as he stared down at Danny's body. He could hardly believe it. No one had even survived his signature attack once, let alone twice. The Dark King actually felt drained from the effort of calling on the divine power twice in one day.

"What can I say... I've always been shitty at the whole dying thing." Danny groaned. The two had returned to the world of Alayzard the moment Danny's energy had ran dry. The boy was barely able to stay awake. His own attack had managed to take the edge off of Galious's finishing move, but it had still shocked him good, and his body was tired, having released too much of his strength to maintain the bounded field.

Four minutes. He had managed to keep it up for four minute. It was longer than he had been able to do in practice. And it was more than long enough.

"Hey! Jackass!" Sam shouted. Galious turned to see the girl standing a short distance away. A massive magic circle underneath her feet and bright green energy covering her entire body. "Eat shit and die!"

Galious had been caught by surprise, vines wrapping around his feet to hold him still. He tried to break free, but his arms and legs were still covered in cuts from his fight with Danny, which weakened him.

Sam put her hands out in front of her and a bright beam of green light came flying straight at the king.

Galious put up an antimagic barrier to protect him, but too his shock the beam went straight through the magic circle without even slowing down. He had managed to get his sword up and in the way of the attack but after a few second the metal cracked and shattered, the blast cutting through his lower stomach, leaving a four foot wide hole in the demon king.

Galious stood there for a second longer before his legs seemed to register that it was no longer connected to his brain and his collapsed backwards, hitting the ground with such force that a cloud of dust was knocked up, concealing him from a few seconds. And when the dust settled, he was back to his original form. Lying on his back, quickly bleeding out.

* * *

'I am going to die.' Galious thought as he lay their, bleeding out. He wasn't anger about it, or scared. He had expected it as fact that he would one day be killed for his actions. But he had still had to try to build a better life for his people.

He heard movement around him and the king's eyes drifted up to see the girl from another world supporting the spirit with her shoulder. The two of them were looking down at him, not with triumph in their eyes, or pride, but pity.

"Girl from lands beyond, boy of the lost spirits. You have bested me, and so I name you heroes." Galious said simply. He couldn't quite feel the pain. He supposed that meant he must be pretty close to death, or his nervous system had been shot by that last attack. His lungs still seemed to be working. The hit must have been too low to damage them. That meant he would have a little time before he finished bleeding out. "Please... tell me what that last attack was, was it divine magic?"

Sam shook her head. "No, the opposite. I gathered the life energy of this world and used it as a weapon. Life energy and spirit magic don't mix well, so the attack is hard to get under control and takes three minutes to charge. But it can't be blocked by spirit magic." She explained.

"So a demon who believed himself to be at the level of a god was kill through mortal power. How fitting." Galious said nodding. He glanced over at Danny trying to keep eye contact as his vision started to fade. "I hear your kind... listen to the last words of the dying. Will you hear mine?"

"I will." Danny said calmly as he pushed himself to stand on his own. His strength was slowly returning as he breathed in the dying air.

"In my castle... my daughter... blood of my blood..." Galious said, forming full sentences was becoming more and more difficult for him, but he struggled to hold on, he couldn't die quite yet. "Though she is young and innocent... destruction is her fate. Whether she is slain by the humans for being of my blood, or lorded by my kin to take my place. Killing will follow her." Galious swallowed hard and could taste blood in his mouth. "Please... if you truly wish to stand for the innocent... don't... don't let them... my daughter... Protect her..."

And with his last wish voiced, his eyelids drifted downwards. That was the end of Galious, the strongest Dark Lord the world of Alayzard had ever known.

"Danny... did we do the right thing?" Sam asked quietly as they looked down upon the man who had spent his dying breath begging for them to protect his daughter.

"Sam, we knew what was at risk when we came here. We did what we thought was right." Danny assured her, even if he was not so sure.

Sam heard the should of hooves coming closer and could see her army coming to witness the end of the war. "Danny... go ahead. Find her." Sam said, and Danny disappeared from sight.

The war had ended. But the story was just beginning.

* * *

 **There are like no stories for 'Aesthetica of a Rogue Hero', which is kind of sad because it is a very interesting setting, despite the actual animes more... perverted events. So I'm starting up a story for it.**

 **Hopefully I can inspire people to do there own stories about it.**


	2. Chapter 2

**I own nothing, not the characters, the space where this story exists, or even the eyes that you are using to read it. This is for entertainment purposes only, no money involved.**

* * *

"Get the hell out!" Sam raged at the servants that had been sent to see to her before the victory parade. "I'm not wearing a dress and I don't need help putting on my clothes!"

"But Lady Samantha, the princess picked out that dr..." The poor servant tried to reason with the girl, but made two quick mistakes made him having to run out of the room with his two fellows as Sam brandished her sword.

Once the servants had ran out the door Sam slammed it behind them and summoned a few thorny vines to hold it closed. But she was still angry so she decided to take out her frustration on the bright pink and white dress that the stupid nobles had wanted to force her into. She ripped it to shreds with her magic, the fine silk not lasting a second against her wild rose bushes.

Feeling at least somewhat satisfied she turned back to her mirror. She was still dressed in her armor and would stay that way if she had anything to say about it. She didn't care about the blood stains or rips that littered the cloth, or the scraps and dents in the metal. She was not going to where a dress, and that was final.

In truth, she would have liked to slip back into her old clothes from before she was summoned, but that was sadly not an option. They just won't fit her anymore. Sam looked over her own body realizing just how much it had changed in the last three months. She was a few inches taller and her rather average B cup breasts had gone up to being a double C. Her hair that she had always kept cut to just above her shoulders had grown out to being just below her shoulder blades. She looked as those she had aged two years instead of just three months.

It was probably a side effect of what the scientists in her own world called 'Summoning Syndrome'. It was just their fancy name for the summoning and all the side effect that came with it. She had heard of people who had managed to return to Earth somehow having bright green hair or see through eyelids. People giving out there own radio waves or producing sonic sneezes. So simply maturing a little quick was not something to be upset about, though it was a pain.

She reach up and cupped her chest. The armor had been comfortable when she had first gotten it two months ago, but now it was squeezing her a bit tightly. She didn't even want to think about all the shopping she would have to do was she returned to Earth.

Returning to Earth.

They had finally completed the objective that had anchored them to this world and they could finally return home. Sam couldn't help but feel a bit of apprehension about it. She hadn't seen her mother and father for three months. She couldn't even begin to imagine how their next meeting would go. Would they have missed her like good parents should. Will they embrace her and tell her that everything will be okay. Or will they have found that they preferred it when she was gone. After all, they had never seen eye to eye. Will they understand the reason Sam had to stay way from them for so long. And what about when the agents of Babel come and Sam will have to leave them yet again.

Sam found that she was more worried about how her parents would react to her than anything the world governments could through together. She would have rather gone another round with Galious than risk things going poorly.

Sam was jarred out of these thoughts as she heard a knock at the door. She immediately dropped her hands from her breasts and glared at the door. "If your with the government or the church piss off or meet the business end of my sword!" Sam shouted angrily. She was sick and tired of all of the messengers from the different kings and princesses that wanted to curry favor with their new 'hero'. Not to mention the pope who wanted her to embrace their religion.

But when she heard the voice on the other side of the door she gave a sigh of relief. "Wow, bad day?" Danny said from out in the hall. "May I come in, or do you need a moment?"

"I barricade the door, so just use the wall." Sam said as she went back to her bed. Having Danny around would help with her stress. After all, he was gone through all the same things as she was.

Danny passed through the wall and stood in front of Sam, sending a glance at the remains of the dress. "Didn't like the princess's choice of clothes, huh?" He said with a chuckle. "I suppose you couldn't just find some black paint for them?"

"Wouldn't have gotten rid of the frilliness. The thing should just be glad I don't have a fire on hand." Sam scoffed as she pointed her nose up in the air, but Danny could see the grin on her face that showed how pleased she was with herself. "So what's the word on that man's daughter?" Sam whispered quietly.

Danny nodded. "I have her in my room over on the other side of the castle, the door is frozen shut so there isn't much chance of someone walking in and finding her. She's... taking everything unnaturally well." Danny said calmly.

"Danny... take me too her." Sam ordered her friend.

"Sam maybe you should..." Danny started but he might as well have just kept his mouth shut. No one had ever managed to convince Sam to change her plans.

"No Danny, I need to do this and I should do it right now." Sam said shaking her head. "I... I killed her father. I should be the one to speak to her."

"Sam we did the deed together." Danny pointed out.

"Good then you're coming with me." Sam said with a confident grin. Danny realized he had walked straight into that one and his head just sank.

"Fine, but you should at least wear something different. Hard to make a good first impression when you got blood on your clothes." Danny said as he pull up a woven basket out and tossed it on the bed next to Sam. "Special delivery."

Sam looked into the bag and pulled out a short sleeved dark green top with a black tree design stitched onto the back and some black pants. "Thank god." Sam said with a tired sigh. "I was afraid that I was going to have to wear one of those ridiculous dressed. Thanks Danny."

"Don't thank me too much. It's from Sir Leon." Danny said with a grin. The smile slid off Sam's face a bit. "I believe his exact words were, 'we'd best get that she devil something she would be willing to wear, or else she's likely to come to the banquet butt naked.'"

"That explains these." Sam grumbled as she lifted up some rather flashy black panties and a lacy black bra.

Sam and Sir Leon had a love/hate relationship. Sam hated the bastard because he was a pervert and an enemy of all woman, but she also liked the guy because of those same reasons. He was an interesting character and someone who didn't take himself so seriously that he couldn't have any fun. The man had also been the one to instruct her in the use of magic and some hand to hand combat leading to his nikenames, Pervy Sensei or the Perverted Knight.

"At least its better then nothing." Sam said with a shrug. Sam started to work at the straps to her shoulder plates. "Mind waiting outside until I'm done?" She said, but she could tell that Danny was already gone, waiting outside of her door.

Sam slowly lowered her shoulder guards and undid the ties on her top, letting the cloth armor fall from her chest and relieving the pressure that held her softer parts in place. She sighed and stretched her shoulders, glad to be free of her too tight clothes. Her breasts were bare since she had never really felt the need to wear a bra underneath the armor. The cloth had been thick enough and the thicker part around her stomach had provided all the support she really needed. Besides, if she had worn a bra, Sir Leon would have found a way to snatch if off her chest. More trouble that it was worth really.

Sam started to try and rub the feeling back into her body, her hands gently passing over the scraps and scars she had managed to get over the past few weeks of war. It was one thing she was a little jealous of Danny for. No mater how injure he became it never left a single blemish on his body, where she would have to carry the proof of her battles until the day that she died. Each one represented a mistake she had made, where she would be thrown from her horse or take a spear to the side. Each one weighing heavy on her each time she got back up for more.

Putting her old shirt down she started to work at the belt, taking off her sword and placing in on her bed next to her new clothes before lowering down her riding pants. Her legs might not have had the same scarring as her stomach and arms, but the inside of her thighs showed where her legs had blistered with saddle sores when she was first getting used to riding horse back. Her feet were still wrapped in bandages full of ointment to help with her feet.

She remembered how she had cursed that first week when she had heard that healing magic didn't really exist. The closest thing to it would be Sam's own nature magic, but that could only create new life. It couldn't repair the old. The cycle only goes in one direction. You can't bring back the dead. Spirit magic can only bend the rules of reality, not break them. Not unless you use more power than any mortal has any right to have... like Danny.

Now that Sam had stripped off all of her clothes she started to realize just how much she smelled. It must have been a few days since she had taken a proper bath and she had just gotten back from war. But there was nothing that she could do, after all, she couldn't exactly take the time to take a bath before the victory parade if she wanted to speak to Galious's daughter before they had to return to Earth. So Sam grabbed the dark underclothes that had been provided for her and quickly started to get dress, trying to do her best to ignore just how well the perverted knight knew her sizes. The creep.

(((

Danny waited patiently for Sam to finish up, trying his best not to think about the details of what she was doing on the other side of that wall behind his back.

This was going to be her final act in this world. It was kind of strange to think about it like that. It almost seemed sad. Like he was about to attend her funeral.

But they had already talked things over and they would return to their home world. The fact that they now had to keep the Demon King's daughter safe pretty much sealed the deal there. Regardless how shitty things were for the summoned children back on Earth, they were at least kept relatively safe. And with a little luck, they could find a way to make a home for her there.

Besides, Sam still wanted to 'change the world'. He could still remember all of her talk about removing CACOON from power and replacing them with an organization ruled by the people, rather than one ruled by those with power.

CACOON, who were also sometimes called the new United Nations, were are group of eight former summons who each had more raw power than most nations. They there the ones who had set up Babel, an independent nation made up of people who had been summoned.

The official reason for this was so that no nation could try to exploit these children. But the more likely reason was so that the group would be the undisputed kings of the world as they had more than enough power to conquer it.

The plan to take it out was fairly simple. Become a member, and bring it down from the inside. Might as well, since they were going to be forced into Babel the moment they set foot back on Earth. And since going along with her was easier than talking her out of it, Danny was being dragged along for the ride.

"I'm ready." Sam said as she pushed upon the door and stepped out into the hallway. Danny had to make sure to keep his eyes at her face. The clothes suited her and she stood proud as ever in the hallway, as if daring anyone to say that she wasn't the Queen of this castle. "Well? You going to stare all day or you going to take me too her? We don't have all the time in the worlds, remember?"

"R...right." Danny said holding out a hand to Sam who took it without missing a beat. She could feel the familiar chill coming down her arm as Danny turned them both invisible and they passed through the walls of the building, heading towards the daughter of the late Demon King.

The only sign that Sam was even slightly nervous about this meeting was a slight squeeze on Danny's hand. "Don't worry Sam. I'm here with you." The boy said softly.

Sam smiled. "Yeah... I know."

(((

Sam was not sure what she was expecting to see whenever she first met the daughter of the King of Demons. But regardless what she was expecting, the truth left her more than a little surprised.

If Galious had looked somewhat human, then his daughter looked like an ordinary girl in her early teens. She was average height, around five foot two inches, and her face still had a lot of baby fat on it which left her looked extremely cute and innocent. Even though her long hair was bright pink Sam new they could pass that off as just an effect of the summonings once they got back to Earth. But there was one thing about the girl that caught her attention a little more than the rest. Something that looked a bit out of place on the childish looking girl's body.

Her breasts were huge, at least an E cup. Sam had never seen such large breasts in her entire life. She caught herself worrying if they even had clothes in her size back on Earth. Would people buy summoning syndrome for those things?

"Who... who are you?" The girl stuttered, as she backed away from Sam and Danny. The poor thing looked more than a little uncomfortable, though Sam could hardly blame her. But a weak voice in the back of the Earth girl's head wondered if this was just an act. Didn't matter, Sam's job didn't change either way.

"You don't need to be afraid. My name is Sam, Sam Manson." Sam said trying to keep her voice calm. "I'm... I'm sorry for your loss." She said simply, tilting her head forward. The Demon Princess seemed a little taken aback by the action. "I only knew your father through the course of our fight with him, but he seemed like a caring man. I'm sorry that I took your father from you. I'd understand if you hate me, but I do wish to help you. It was your father's dying wish that you be taken out of harms way."

The girl was silent as she drain in what Sam had just said. "I know." She whispered. "He told me that this would happen someday. When I was a little girl he told me that when he died, I was to try to make a new life with whoever managed to kill him. Hoping that they would find it in their hearts to protect me, and not take vengeance against his heir." She bowed a little towards Sam. "My name is Myuu. I'm sorry for all the trouble."

Sam didn't know what to say, she shuffled her feet awkwardly. "You... really aren't what I was expecting from a demon princess." She admitted weakly.

"Only my father was a demon, and I'm told that I take after my mother. She was an elf." Myuu admitted.

"Well then Myuu, after today, Danny and I are going to be returning to the world we came from. You are welcome to come with us. No one would know that you aren't from there, so you should be safe. But the choice is yours." Sam said, hoping she wasn't pressuring the poor girl too much. She couldn't imagine having to live her life with the person who killed her family.

Myuu's eyes widened. Sam was surprised with how bright green they were, nearly as green as Danny's ghostly form. But then a sad expression crossed her face. "I can't. The other world gate can only send people who were summoned from other worlds back. It will not open for me."

"There is more than one way to move between worlds." Danny said simply. "Don't worry I've got my methods of travel. You just need to choice whether or not you want to come along. Hell, you can give it a trial run if you want. I can bring you back to this world at any time if you feel like you can't take it anymore. Though it will make things a little difficult for us to explain how you disappeared." Danny looked the smaller girl in the eyes. "You have the right to do whatever you wish. But if you want our help, this is what we can do."

Myuu looked out the window. "I... I can leave this world?" She mumbled. They could see the indecision in her expression. This world was all she had ever known, it held all of her memories, good and bad. Simply letting all of that go was a huge choice to make.

"We can give you some time if you need it." Danny suggested after a few seconds of silence.

"No." Myuu said shaking her head. "I've decided." She turned to the two of them, trying her best to seem confident and strong, only managing to seem like a stubborn little girl because of her childish features. "Please take good care of me." She said before bowing to them.

Sam tried her best to smile. "It's good to have you on board. Myuu."

* * *

"This is unbelievable." Balaam Dai Aron Disdia grumbled from the top of his literal high horse as he stood in one of the spots of high honor of the victory parade that was scheduled to start at any moment. The king of the Disdia Empire was a brutish looking man with an equally brutish personality.

He was talk with thick brown hair and a beard that looked like he was tried to decide which of three mustache styles he wanted and simply opted to get all three at once.

"How long does that girl plan on making royalty wait. Such arrogance." Balaam growled as he glared over the heads of the others.

"Please father, you must remember that you must give women time to look there best." Prince Alphonse said as he rode up next to his father. His father's advisers having called him in hopes that he might calm the king's temper. Unlike his father, the boy was clean shaven and his brown hair was cut shorter so it didn't hang down his back. "Surely the beauty of our land's heroine will be well worth the wait."

"Heroine." The King scoffed. "That girl is nothing more than a glorified harlot who has sway over a dangerous monster. I would be willing to bet that she bought his loyalties with her own body."

"I would prefer if you kept such baseless opinions to yourself." Listy El Da Sherfied, the princess of the country of Sherfied attempted to scold the king. The Kingdom of Sherfied and the Disdia Empire had never been close, differing in culture, ideology, resources and government policy. The only thing that had brought them together was the looming threat of dark clans, and the girl hero who more or less demanded their compliance. "Even if the Lady Samantha has no respect for her better, you must remember that to the people she is our savior. And we do owe the Phantom a debt of gratitude as well."

Listy herself was as different from Balaam in appearance as their countries were different from each other. She had smooth pale skin and long golden blond hair done up in a ponytail, and where the grumpy king wore a scowl as ruff as his bear skin cloak, the princess was dressed in a gentle green dress with a clear white veil around her arms.

"Oh, so the Princess of Sherfied has taken a fancy to that subhuman filth." Balaam scoffed angrily.

Listy's eyes widened at the insult. "I will have you know that it Sherfied royal family does not mingle with his type!" Listy objected. "I am simply stating that you should not seek to endanger your position by threatening the lady who has won the hearts of the people."

Alphonse began to laugh. "Yes, she is quiet popular among the commoners. But that is the exact reason I will be taking her as my bride." Alphonse declared to the shock of many who were gathered, though his father was not one of them. It was a purely political move. "With our goddess of victory standing by my side in my kingship, how can the empire do anything but thrive."

Before Listy could even comment on the rudeness of openly treating a hero like an trophy, a laugh drew all of their attention away to Sir Leon as the knight laughed at the prince decoration of desire to take the hero to be his lady wife. "Would you like to tell me what you find so amusing, knave." Alphonse spat at the knight.

"Simple. You remind me of a man I once knew who thought it would be very impressive to own a pet lion. After all, it is a symbol of power and courage." Leon said as the blond haired knight grinned at the prince. "Pity he wasn't a lion tamer. It wasn't long until the idiot died to the beast he had tried to chain to the foot of his bed."

"What is it that you are implying." Alphonse said, narrowing his eyes.

"Go back home to your house cats you foolish prince. Leave the lioness for the lion tamer." Leon said with a grin. "Our holy woman was summoned to Sherfied and it is here where she will stay. I will make the wild cat mine."

Princess Listy hardly liked this declaration any more than the last. Leon had a reputation as a collector of women, not someone who was very noble, despite his close ties to her family. Though despite this he probably had a closer relationship with the girl than most of them.

"To speak of our Holy Lady as some form of trophy wife. Have you men no shame." Miranda Quenti, the pope's mouth piece said as the white haired youth glared at the two nobles. "Truly holy individuals commit themselves to the gods, not to pleasures of the world. You seek that which you cannot and should not have."

"Please, you only say that because you got no balls." Leon said waving the boy off. Miranda glared. Like most of the higher members of the church Miranda had been removed from the pressures of the world through rather permanent means, as well as being made to dress like a woman and have a woman's name. For Leon to off handedly mention the sacrifice was of greatest insult.

Listy watched as the tensions rose between these three young man. It mirror the tension that was rising between the three nations. And all of it was over the same question. Now that the war was over, who owned their Holy Woman?

In the short time she had been in Alayzard, Sam had managed to become the most important person in the entire land, gaining favor with not just the people of the three great nations of man, but also the mermaids, wood elves, and centaur clans. Each kingdom wished to take possession of this most important person. The hero who defeated the most powerful Dark Lord in the history of Alayzard.

Miranda's hand brushed the hilt of his sword as he glared at Leon. "I dare you preacher girl." Leon said as his hand went to his own blade. Alphonse gave his men a gesture and three of his guards also went for their blades.

"Honestly, can I not leave you idiots together for five minutes without you trying to kill each other?" All action stopped as they all recognized Sam's cocky voice.

The heroine herself rode up on her Guinevere, giving them all a disapproving look, as if they were small children that had been caught misbehaving. The three men each stopped and stared at her, too unsure of themselves to even breath.

Dressed in her form fitting dark green and black clothes, she had a sort of beauty about her that they didn't see in most of the women of the court. Her grace and pride were different than the others. Less lady like and more wild and aggressive. Each of them saw the most beautiful woman they had ever laid eyes on.

But all Sam saw where three men in their late twenties that had their heads up there asses. She wasn't so nieve to not realize that they were fighting for her good graces but she honestly couldn't care less about them. To her they were an annoyance, and one that she would so say goodbye to, and good riddens.

"I am sorry, My Lady. I forgot myself." Miranda said, wanting to be the first to say something.

"Well then try to remember that your world is going to be watching you all today. They want to see what you are going to do now that the war is finally over. So try not to have 'being at each other's throats' as the new policy." Sam said as she rolled her eyes.

"And pray tell us where you have been?" Balaam said trying his best to look civil while the girl was looking. Though his contempt for her tardiness was easy to spot.

"I had some more important things to take care of." Sam said as a jab at the king.

"Oh, and what was so important that you had to keep royalty waiting in order to see to it?" Balaam said, an eye twitching as he took her taunt.

"If that was your business, I would have informed you of it. You do know that my world doesn't revolve around your ties of nobility. Just because the war is over doesn't mean that everything is all of the sudden alright with the world." Sam said as she moved straight passed the king, not even bothering to keep eye contact with him. "The sell swords that are now out of work are quickly forming bandit raiding parties and are trying to take advantage of this time to rob from the boarder villages. I consider ordering arranging an alarm system to inform us of any attacks to be infinitely more important than this stupid celebration."

"Bandits!" Listy shouted in shock. "How could anyone wish to do such a thing right after we finally won our peace?"

"Your being too nieve again, Princess." Sam said shaking her head. "Violence is those people's livelihood. Now that the war is over they need a new source of income. Even bastards have to eat."

"You should have brought me into these dealings. After all, as a knight of Sherfied, anything that threatens the people of our lands is my business." Sir Leon said as he flashed Sam a smile.

"Who ever said they were your people? The main targets of the raiding parties are the civilians of the dark clans." Sam said.

The jaws of everyone present dropped. "You would protect that subhuman filth!" Balaam roared.

"Somebody needs to. Civilians are civilians. They don't deserve to have their homes burned." Sam said just as angrily. "I have arranged with the centaurs and wood elves to set up a volunteer army to help deal with these raiders, it will be made up of anyone who is willing to join; human, elf, demon, I don't care. Sir Dennis will be in charge of gathering the resources for the group and Nimbleoak of the Western Wood Brothers offered to mark key points on the maps."

"You would offer help to our enemies? Even after everything they did." Leon said, a darker expression crossing his face.

"The war is over. Just let it go." Sam said. "Speaking of which, how about we get this stupid ceremony over with. I've got more important things to do than listen to you all grip all day." And with that, Sam urged her horse forward, leaving the others staring open mouthed after her.

Even after all this time, they still find her way of doing things to be more than shocking. She went against everything they knew. And it was with that personality that she had taken charge of all their armies and lead their battles. "What a woman." Alphonse mumbled and the others could only nodded in agreement.

* * *

"You sure you want to watch this?" Danny asked Myuu as they sat on top of a tall tower over the streets of the city, watching as the people gathered to catch a glimpse of their hero who had rescued them from despair. Danny couldn't understand why the girl wanted to see the event. It was the death of her father they were celebrating.

Myuu nodded. "I need to see what kind of person my father trusted me to. I've heard stories about her. But I need to see it with my own eyes." Myuu said as she pulled in her legs. The sounds of the cheers and laughter clashing with the sadness she felt inside.

"Well... you might end up being surprised." Danny said as he sat down at the edge of the roof next to her. "Sam has never liked doing what people expect her to."

Myuu looked confused, but before she could ask what he meant, the crowd went crazy. Coming down the long road up to the palace was Sam, sitting proud on top of her tall war horse. She was leading the march, the key figures of each nation trotting long behind her as she set the pace.

The crowd cheered her name, shouting for there 'Goddess of Victory', the woman who had never lost a battle. A woman who was larger than life itself. But to Myuu, sitting on top of the high tower, she looked so small and young. She didn't act like a high and mighty hero, standing above everyone and acting as if they were graced to be in her presence.

She smiled and laughed as some of the children from the crowd ran up to her to give her flowers, and pulled one little girl up onto her horse with her and helped her wave to the crowd. She was not stoic or cold, a guardian hanging over them all, but full of life and the center of everything.

Myuu heard Danny grumble a little as one of the three men on horse back behind Sam pushed his horse forward to speak to her, receiving a glare from the other two who quickly tried to join. "What's the matter?" Myuu asked the ghostboy.

"Nothing, they're just Sam's suiters. Wish they would just take a hint and give up. They're all too old for her anyways." Danny said angrily.

"Su...suiters!?" Myuu squeaked. The demon princess blushed a bright red at hearing the term.

"Well technically only two of them are her suiters. The last one is just trying to win her over for his nation. Stupid politics." Danny clarified before glancing over at the girl. "Didn't anyone try to take your hand in marage in order to gain favor with your father or something? If nothing less." He said that last part a little quieter as he glanced over the girl's body. From a strictly objective stand point, Danny had to admit she was a good looking girl. One that most boy's back in his world would have been crawling all over to introduce themselves too.

"No!.. I don't think so..." Myuu said, ending more weakly than she meant to.

"Huh... maybe you dad scared them all off. He seemed like a pretty protective kind of guy. That's probably why he met us outside of his castle. If we had fought inside he would have had a much greater advantage, but there would have been a chance you would have been caught in the cross fire." Danny said with a shrug. "I know I would be afraid of asking you out on a date if he was standing their with his arms crossed."

Myuu was quiet, thinking over the things that Danny had just said. "He really was... wasn't he." She said in a leveled voice.

The world seemed to have an awkward silence, even though the crowds below them were roaring with laughter and song. But even with all the joy of the city, the two up on the tower were stuck on glum. "You now you can cry about it if you want to." Danny said simply. Myuu froze up, not wanting the boy to see just how much she wanted to. "I won't think any less of you if you do."

"I am not weak." Myuu pouted angrily.

"Admitting you're sad isn't weakness." Danny said shaking his head. "I was sad when my parents died. It took me a while to cry about it, but I didn't really feel better until after I did." Myuu looked surprised at that information. "My dad had always been a reckless driver, and that caught up to him. He drove the family car off a cliff with my mom in the passenger seat."

"I'm sorry." Myuu said tilting her head away. But after a few more seconds she asked. "What's a car?"

"Huh... think of it as a coach that doesn't need to have any horses pulling it." Danny said, realizing for the first time that the girl was going to be in for a bit of a culture shock when she finally went to Earth. "That's not really important. You don't need to cry now, but just don't try to hold it in. It isn't healthy. At least, that's what Jazz kept saying."

"Who's Jazz?" Myuu asked curiously.

"My older sister. She'll probably chew me out for taking so long to get back home once this is all over. Man I had only planned to be gone for a few hours, a day at the most. And it's been three months." Danny chuckled rubbing the back of his neck. "I hope she didn't worry herself sick..." Myuu could hear the guilt in his voice. The shame of making his sister worry.

It was odd for her to see the people that her father had named as heroes and asked to protect her in this light. They seemed so normal. They had joy and fear in their lives. They where understanding and just trying to do what they thought was right. If only the situation between them and her father had been different. Maybe they would have all been friends.

She was shocked out of her thoughts when Danny broke into laughter. "Don't look now, but Sam is about to give her speech." Danny laughed as he grinned down. Sam had gotten off of her horse and was heading up to a small stage overlooking the crowd. The lords and ladies that had been following her all filling into seats off to the side, with the royals and representatives of each nation and clan sitting in seats of honor. "Oh man I can't believe they're going to let her talk. Did these idiots not learn anything over the past few months."

"What?" Myuu said, confused by Danny's comments. Why wouldn't they want the hero to give words of encouragement to their people?

"You'll see." Danny said with a grin. "Oh man. If only I had popcorn." Danny chuckled as he leaned forwards, resting his hands on his knees. Myuu turned to watch as the crowd slowly quieted. She couldn't help but wonder what popcorn was.

Sam stood above all of the common people. Each standing with upturned faces as they gazed in awe at their hero. Preparing to carve whatever words of wisdom she might impart onto them into their minds forever. It was a disaster waiting to happen.

Sam smiled down at them with a rather sad expression on her face. "I look out upon this gather, and I can't help but to see the faces that aren't here. The fathers and brothers who went out onto the battlefield, not for honor or duty, but out of fear of what would become of their families if they stayed still. It is for you that they risked themselves, and for you that so many of them lost their lives. I hope that you all remember that in the years to come. Live your lives to the fullest, cherish each moment that those brave souls bought for you with their blood." Sam use quite the public speaker, having practiced day and night at it back on Earth, taking inspiration for several key figures in history. Each and every face in the crowd was looking up at her, drinking in every word. Even the nobles seemed to be on the edge of their seats.

"But you didn't come here today to morn, their will be time for that in the days to come as you all seek to rebuild your lives. You came her today to give thanks to those who made it possible for us all to still be standing here today. Though I am afraid your thanks has been misplaced on me." Sam said, shaking her head to the confusion of those had come. "There were so many people who had to work together to make this day possible. Not just the three nations of humans, but several other men and women as well. They all put aside their differences, all the past and present griefs. We all suffered in silence for the common good, because we knew that our cause was just. And so, now that those dark times are over, I would like to speak some word."

"Oh gods, here it comes." Danny said, looking as though he was going to bust a gut soon. Myuu didn't understand, it was a motivational speech, what could she possibly do? Danny got up from his spot on the edge of the building. "I need to be prepared for my part in this. Just stay out of sight. I'll be right back."

Before Myuu could ask what he was talking about Danny stepped off the edge of the building, and vanished from sight.

"Murkari of the Merfolk, it is thanks to your raiders cutting off the enemies supply lines that we were able to end the war so quickly. And for that you have my gratitude and admiration." Sam said, the large merman who sat in one of the seats of honor bowed his head and made a deep throated cry of approval in the manner of his kin. Myuu had never seen any of the Merfolk before. They were taller than an average human and covered with multicolored fish scales that shined in the light of the sun. Their gills had adapted so that they could pull in air as well as water, though their people still preferred the sea.

Sam had been going down the line, making note of each clans and races' contributions to the cause. Myuu had no idea just how many species the hero had managed to gather to her side. But finally she was getting down to just the three kingdoms of man left to talk about.

"Emperor Balaam Dai Aron Disdia." Sam said as she looked to the large man. "Without your family's hard work, today would have never common to pass." The king pushed out his chest, trying to look as proud as possible. "After all, without their contain racism and bulling of those who that saw as inferior to them, the dark clans would have never felt the need to lash out against the kingdoms of man. And your pig headedness and insistence of not bring in the elf clans would have certainly been the death of us if I had ever bothered to listen to your stupid opinions."

It took a moment for everyone to register what she had just said, but once she was finished the crowd roared with laughter, with several of the elves in attendance giving loud whissle blows as the King stared in dumb shock.

"Prince Alphonse, I will not marry you, so stop following me around or else I will do the same thing to you as we did with the prince back in my world that tried to take me as his bride. We'll kick your ass, lock you in a dungeon somewhere, and then give your rule over to your sister. I'm sure that Wendy would do a much better job than you. At least she cares about her people." Sam snapped at the prince who shrank away as everyone laughed at him as his father.

"Miranda! Stop trying to convert the Merfork every time I turn my back on you. If they want to worship the Grand Koi then let them." Sam shouted at the priest, earning many deep throated laughs from the merman. Was mouthing a silent prayer hoping that he would wake up and it would just be a nightmare. Leon punch the guy on the shoulder in a playful manner as he laughed his lungs out.

"Don't be too proud of yourself Leon! We're lucky we managed to get anywhere with the war effort in Sherfied with you wasting everyone's time chasing skirts! I can't even remember how many times Listy and I had to get onto you about stealing women's underwear. Your not a knight, your a pervert. And the only thing that is more embarrassing is that your proud of yourself." Sam said angrily.

"Yes I am!" Leon shouted back with a cocky grin, lust still in his eyes.

"No to mention your also a racist bastard who doesn't give a damn about the people under his command and only wants revenge!" Sam shouted. That seemed to hit a nerve as Leon's eyes widened.

"Listy, stop calling yourself a princess, you a Queen, now act like you. Stop just scolding people when then break your laws and actually do something about it. Leon should have been stripped of his title a long time ago." Sam said to the blond haired woman who blushed.

Finished with her belittling her prime targets, Sam turned back to the people. "It's clear that the leadership here is lacking, and I am going to be counting on you all to help these guys shape up when I'm gone."

Everyone went silent as those words sank in. Their hero was leaving.

"This isn't my world, and I should have left a long time ago. It was only my unwillingness to turn my back and simply let you all die that anchered me here, but now that the war is over, I must return to my own world." Sam said with an apologitic bow of her head to the people. "I now that you can all make a difference and that you can rebuild what you have lost. And with that knowledge, I can leave without regrets. Thank you all for putting up with me until now. I will never forget you." She said and they all murmured in disbelief and sadness as she bowed. Some of the guards where motioned to, told to make sure the girl didn't leave.

"Danny..." Sam whispered and she felt a cold hand on her shoulder. In the blink of an eye, she was gone, leaving a shocked crowd to try to wrap their heads around what had just happened.

Up on the roof, Myuu could feel Danny returning, even before she saw him and Sam reappear out of thin air. "You know you probably just sewed the seeds of revolution, don't you?" Danny chuckled as Sam burst into her own laughter.

"Yeah well, a new government might do the people some good. And I just had to get back at those idiots for all the grief they have given me. Those pains in my ass." Sam said before glancing at Myuu. "So how did you like the show?" She asked with a grin.

Myuu just nodded, her head was still ringing from what she had heard, and her jaw was dropped upon, looking as those she was trying to catch flies in it.

"Myuu, I need to take Sam to the otherworld gate. Its the only way she can return to Earth, but after that I'll be right back to pick you up for our ride to the other world." Danny said to the girl. "So just try to keep from getting caught until I get back. I'm pretty sure they are going to be searching our rooms after this little stunt Sam pulled. But it should still be safe in this tower."

"R...right." Myuu nodded.

Sam looked down from the building. "It's a pity I can't take Guinevere back with me. But I suppose their isn't exactly a place for me to keep a war horse back home." Sam said with a sad sigh before she let Danny lead her away by the arm. The two of them became invisible again, and Myuu could feel them flying away.

* * *

Sam looked up at the Otherworld Gate. It wasn't the most mysterious or impressive sight she had ever seen, but it sure was out there.

The thing was made up of several decade looking blocks that were covered in moss and vines, the ancient runes barely noticeable on the worn surfaces. But for some reason there was a certain nostalgic quality to the thing. Maybe it had something to do with how they were stacked together in an arc, or perhaps it was the glowing green orb that rippled behind the thing, giving off rays of vivid green light as the air hummed around it.

"Your coach, my lady." Danny joked as he gestured towards the pulsating sphere.

"Oh gods Danny! For the love of Clockwork, I hope I never get called that again." Sam moaned rolling her eyes. But even though she was trying to act light and confident about it, Danny could see her nervousness poking through.

"Sam, it's just a portal. You've been through hundreds of them." Danny tried to calm the girl's nerves.

"Yeah, that's how I know you can't trust them." Sam mumbled weakly. She tried to close her ears to the shifting of the air that always seemed to accompany such portals.

Danny shook his head, though he knew exactly what she meant. But this was the only way. He had tried to take her through a ghost portal before, but the summonings had caused the portal to reject her. The only way Sam was ever getting back home was through that gateway.

Danny grinned as he thought of another way to get her to go. "Alright, but remember, if you don't go soon then everyone will catch up with us and you will have to stay here with Prince Alphonse and Sir Leon!" Danny teased in a sing song voice.

Sam shivered. "Alright! I'll go!" She shouted angrily as she started marching towards the portal. "You better be right behind me dammit! I expect you back in our world with Myuu in two hours tops! And if you don't show up, I will personally go to Far Frost and raise an army to drag you back!"

"No worries, I'm as sick of this place as you are." Danny chuckled as Sam moved towards the portal.

"Oh? So there was nothing going on between you and 'Princess' Listy?" Sam said, causing Danny to sputter weakly. But before he could get out a coherent response, Sam went through the portal and was gone from the world.

"She just has to get the last word in, doesn't she." Danny said as he tried to fight down a blush. The sound of hooves was coming closer and Danny turned to see the guards of all three nations coming up towards him. He saw Prince Alphonse and Sir Leon leading the group as they moved towards him as quickly at they could, not knowing that their 'holy woman' was already far beyond their reach. "You're all a little late to see her off. Not that Sam has ever been one to like long goodbyes." Danny said as he turned to them with a cocky grin. He had never liked any of these people, and the feeling was mutual.

"Where is our Goddess of Victory! Tell us, you subhuman filth, so that we may go to her!" Prince Alphonse shouted angrily at Danny.

"Weren't you listening you idiot! She's already gone!" Sir Leon shouted as he glared daggers at the ghost boy. "Damn you! You have taken our holy woman away from us."

"'Your' holy woman? You idiots still don't have a clue do you?" Danny chuckled. "You don't own Sam. You never did. She can't even be owned. I doubt even she can control herself." Danny waved them off as they continued to fum. "The war is over, so she is gone. Now if you would excuse me. I need to make arrangements for my own trip home."

Danny was about to fly away when Leon shouted over at him. "Where is she!?"

Danny rolled his eye. "Sam's gone! Get over it!" He shouted back.

"No! Where is Galious's daughter! Where is the Demon Princess!" Leon demanded. Whispers moved through the gathered knights.

Danny stopped. "What makes you think I know where she is? Galious probably shipped her off to somewhere safe just before the finally battle. Besides, the war is over. Just leave the girl in peace." Danny said calmly.

"Do not try to pull the wool over our eyes! We know what you are! I know that you hold that demon! Now give her up!" Leon demanded placing a hand on his enchanted sword. "She must be made to pay for her crimes!"

Danny narrowed his eyes. "What crimes are those? Last I check she was just the daughter of a demon lord. She never did anything." Danny might as well have confessed that he was harboring the girl.

"Simply being born to her putrid blood line is crime enough." Prince Alphonse said as he realized what Leon was on about. Capturing and executing the daughter of the dark lord, and thus ending his blood line, would be a feather in his cap. Something that would surely win the people over.

"Hand her over." Leon growled, not caring about honor. He simply wanted revenge against the demons, and using Myuu as bate to lure them out of hiding was the best way to go about it. Screw Sam's words about forming peace between their kinds. Her thoughts had been tainted by the subhuman filth that was now before them.

Danny's hand clenched into a fist. "I won't let you kill an innocent child." Danny growled, his eyes flashing an even deeper green as his anger grew. A faint light light flowing around his skin. Some of the knight's horses took a few steps back, understanding that their riders where angering a powerful force. But most had been broken and wouldn't have flinched even if their masters had tried to ride them off of the top of a cliff.

"So you admit your treachery? You wicked beast. You will hang for this treason." Prince Alphonse snapped as he motioned for his knights to advance.

"How can it be treason? I never swore my loyalty to anyone. Galious asked me with his dying breath to protect his daughter for him, and I will honor that last request." Danny said as he watched the knights preparing to charge. "Stop being stupid. You're no match for me. You all know it." Danny said, glaring at them. "I am going to take Myuu out of this world and to the land of the dead. How is that any different than killing her as far as you are concerned? She will never be seen in this land again. So just let her go."

A red magic circle appeared underneath Danny's feet and a pillar of fire shot out of the ground, engulfing his body in swirling flames that danced up into the sky.

"You underestimate us, Phantom. I will not hesitate to kill a monster like you." Leon said as his golden eyes stared hard at the fire. He turned to his men, believing the dead had been done. "I want you all to search every nook and cranny of the castle! Every stop that monster had even looked at until we find that devil spawn!"

"Yes, the child of Galious must be found!" The Prince said to his own men.

"You are all idiots..." Danny voice echoed through the air as a cold chill moved through the woods.

They all turned back to see the pillar of fire dying away, with Danny standing unscathed in the middle of the patch of blackened soil. "Even Galious couldn't kill me with spirit magic. What makes you think your third rate fire spell could even singe a hair on my head?" Danny said as he gave the knights his cocky grin. They gasped as moved back as the white glow of spiritual energy grew stronger around him. "If you want to hurt a spirit using spirit magic, you have to have more power than they do, and none of you could hold a candle to Galious."

Danny cracked his knuckles before putting his hands to his sides, letting his cold energy flow out, down his arms to form into crystal blades. "I'm sick and tired of having to deal with all of your crap. So know it is time to teach you all a lesson."

The knights panicked and tried to form magic circles to protect them from the ghost boy, but Danny moved fast, not giving them time to focus on any given spot for too long.

But rather than cutting down the knights, he simply cut all the straps on their horses as he moved through the crowd, dodging spear thrusts and chunks of rock that they sent flying at him with their magic.

Once he had cut the last strap he ran out of the group and turned to them. "Be gone!" His voice boomed, sending out a chill that startled the animals causing them all to kick, throwing off their rides and saddles as the animal ran for the hills.

Danny laughed as the knights feel to the ground, the sound of their metal armor clanging against the ground as they struggled to get back up.

"Well now, looks like it is going to take you a while to get back to your castle." Danny teased the horseless men.

"Damn you!" Leon shouted as he casted another fire ball at Danny which the boy just lazily batted to the said like it was a ball of paper rather than flames.

"Goodbye, Sir Leon. You racist prick." Danny said with a solute before turning invisible and flying off, back towards the castle and Princess Myuu.

* * *

Just a few hours ago, Myuu had been the princess of the most powerful clan of demons that history had ever known, the daughter of the greatest Dark Lord to ever live. And now she was a single young girl on the run from an entire world with neither family or clan, having to depend on her father's killers for protection. It was hard for her to believe how quickly everything had changed.

Her father had been trying to build a new world for her, a world where they wouldn't have to hide away all of their lives. A world without humans who would hunt them and try to seal them away. A world where she could live freely. So why... why did he have to die?

Even as she asked herself the question, she knew the answer. It was because the humans didn't want to die either. They didn't want to be forced into submission the same way the dark clansmen had been. It is why they fought back, and why they summoned their hero.

Myuu thought about everything she had seem about the unusual hero. Sam was hardly the type of person from the stories. She hadn't been welling up with pride at having defeated a powerful Dark Lord. Not declaring her righteousness to the heavens as she vanquished the demons. She had seemed so apologetic. Rather than seeing the humans as some kind of superior race, she had treated all peoples equally, if not with kindness, going so far as to set up a relief effort to help ease the pains of war left to the dark clansmen, even going as far as protecting Myuu, Galious's daughter.

As much as Myuu wanted to, she found that she couldn't hate Sam for her part in her father's death. Her or the spirit who stood beside her. Danny's understanding words were still stuck in the former princess's mind. That it was alright to be sad, that it wasn't weakness to cry.

As Myuu sat in the closed off room, waiting for Danny to return to take her out of this world which no longer held a future for her, she let her emotions take over. Letting the tears come as she wept for her father, for her people, and for herself.

She cried and cried until nearly an hour passed and she finally became aware of a strong spiritual presence in the room. "You could have just told me you were here." Myuu said weakly as she did her best to push the water works out of her eyes.

"I wanted to give you some time to let it all out. Don't worry, we aren't really in that much of a hurry." Danny said as his body returned to the visible spectrum. Myuu looked up at him, seeing the pity in his eyes, plain as day. "You feeling any better now?"

Myuu's head sank down. "I guess so."

Danny held his hand out to her. "Then it is probably time we get moving. The nobles around here have already figured out that I snuck you out of your palace, so they are probably going to start searching the castle. Probably for the best if we don't take any longer than needed."

Myuu nodded and took his hand. "How are we going to leave? We can't use the otherworld gate."

A small grin passed over Danny's face. "Don't underestimate a ghost. We've got our own set of tricks." Danny reached out a hand in front of him and Myuu held back a gasp as she felt a massive surge of spiritual energy. A small portal appeared in front of them, the spiral green energy felt like it was drawing them in. "It's time to go." Danny said as he pulled Myuu through the portal with him, letting in shut itself behind them.

Just like that, the hero, the spirit, and the demon princess had all vanished from Alayzard.

(((

It took Sam a few moments to remember where she was, and when she finally did realize it she briefly considered using her magic to level the place. "Great. Forgot this is where I had been summoned from." She grumbled, crossing her arms and glaring out at the wide eyed boys and girls in front of her. "I see the peanut gallery hasn't changed while I was gone!" Sam said in a loud and angry voice as she looked out at her classmates in the middle of Caspar High School.

Sam glared at them as they all stared in slack jawed astonishment, and maybe horror as she stood in front of them in her extremely foreign clothes, a sword and a shield that were still on her back.

Sam was shocked though when a boy ran up to her and throw his arms around her in a hug. "Your alive! Your alive! I told them you'd be back!" Tucker laughed as he hugged his old friend. Sam had hardly recognized him, not because he went through a growth spirt like Danny had, but because he had taken off his red hat. He was still the same other than that, an African America boy who had a little bit of a gut from all his hours sitting on his butt playing video games and eating nothing but large quantities of junk food and meat.

"Tucker, no hugging!" Sam said as she pried the boy's arms off of her. "And of course I'm alive. I just had some things to take care of before I came back. No big deal."

"M...Ms. Manson." Mr. Lancer said in dumb shock. The balding teacher hadn't changed one bit either, though Sam couldn't care less about that. Right now she was in no mode for her classmate. She would talk to Tucker later, but at the moment there was something she had to do. Something she had been emotionally preparing herself for all day.

"Tucker, meet me at Fenton Works tonight. I've got places to be." Sam said with a confident, commanding voice as she pushed her much longer than they remembered it black hair back behind her shoulders.

"Will do. Does that mean Danny's back too?" Tucker asked.

"Of course he is. If I am hard to get rid of, Danny is impossible to." Sam said with a grin as Tucker did a fist pump of victory.

"Yes! The betting pot is mine! Eat it none believer!" Tucker shouted. Sam just rolled her eyes before leaving the room, leaving an entire room of slack jawed teens in her wake.

(((

Sam had gotten a lot of odd looks as she ran down the streets, using her magic to increase her speed to the point were she was leaving some of the cars in her dust. But with every step she took towards her destination she found herself slowing a bit more and more. She was hardly even moving at a walking pace as she finally turned the final corner and walked up to the porch of her house.

She looked up at her own home, the surreal dream-like feeling passing over her as she stared at it. The building was completely unchanged, not a single detail out of place from the moment she had first left it. Sam walked up to the door, not sure what to do, standing on the welcome mat like an idiot.

Should she just walk in? It was her home, even if she hadn't been there in a few months. But... what if her parents didn't recognize her? What if they didn't want her back? What if she woke up and it was all a dream? The 'what if's just kept piling up making Sam feel less and less like the brave hero who faced down a Dark Lord, and more like a small child who had wet the bed and didn't want her mommy to find out.

In a half daze, Sam's hand went towards the door knob and turned it, slowly pushing the door upon. Her mind registered that even the creak of the door was the same as it had always been. Her father had still not oiled the hinges.

Holding her breath, Sam stepped back into her old home and in a way, her old life. Sneaking into her house, trying to be as quiet as a mouse because she had over stayed curfew or something. The sound of her sword hilt bouncing against her shield rang in her eyes like bombs going off as she made her way through the front hall and towards the living room where some small sound was coming from.

The chairs and sofa were in the exact same place as before, the TV turned on to FOX news. A small smile crossed Sam's face as she saw the reporters on the monitor. She hated FOX news. It was so bias it was laughable, but her parents still watched it, regardless what their daughter said. Picking up the remote she turned the TV off, quieting the world again.

"I'm really back." Sam said to herself in a whisper as if afraid that the world hear her and that reality would rewrite itself so that it wasn't true.

Hearing a gasp behind her, Sam turned to see a woman standing in the doorway. Her bright orange hair let down for once in her life and a black dress of mourning on instead of her usual bright and frilly pink. Her lime green eyes staring into Sam's amethyst ones.

"Sammykins?" Pamela Manson said in a disbelieving voice. Sam didn't even flinch at the awful nickname. She just swallowed hard, trying to find her voice.

"Hey mom... I'm home." She said trying to hide her nervousness.

Pamela's eyes welled up with tears as she rushed forward, embracing her daughter. "Oh Sammy, we thought you were gone. We thought you were gone." Sam's mother cried as she hugged her daughter.

Sam stood in relative shock for a few moments before the last bits of the noble hero melted away and she wrapped her arms around her mother and tears began to roll down her own cheeks. "I'm sorry mom." It was the only thing that she could think to say. But that was alright. There was no need for words. Not yet. Now was a time for comfort. It would be the only time they had for it.

* * *

 **Here is the full chapter 2**


	3. Chapter 3 part 1

**I own nothing, not the characters, the space where this story exists, or even the eyes that you are using to read it. This is for entertainment purposes only, no money involved.**

* * *

Jazz Fenton gave a tired sigh as she was driving home from school. She was getting annoyed with all of the idiots in her school who wouldn't stop giving her pitying looks. Saying that they were sorry about her lose of the only family she had left. She knew better. Her younger brother had never been very good at dying. He'd be back with Sam, he's just been held up by something, probably a stubborn Sam.

Though with every passing day it was becoming harder and harder to stay optimistic. She often caught herself wondering if she was in denial, and when you start psycho-analyzing yourself, that is a bad sign for your mental health.

But what could she do? She couldn't go after him. She couldn't bring him back herself. And she sure as hell couldn't give up on him. She could only wait and have faith. Strange, when faith is your only option. Can it even be called faith at that point?

Now she was getting to philosophical again. She really needed to stop that.

Pulling up into her driveway she undid her seat belt and grabbed her book bag before starting for her front door. Unlocking it and walking in Jazz shouted. "I'm home!"

It was purely out of habit, she never expected anyone to answer. So she dropped her book bag in shock when someone did. "Welcome back! How was your day!?"

Jazz rushed to the kitchen to find Danny sitting at the table a goofy grin on his face as he look at his sister. That grin and his bright blue eyes were the only things she still recognized about him, he had grown so much since she last saw him, and he looked like something out of a fairy tail with his sleeveless black leather shirt that left his now heavily toned arms exposed.

"You missed curfew Danny. Ninety-seven times." Jazz said in her one joking manner as a relieved smile spread across her face. "Your grounded for life."

"Ouch." Danny joked back.

It wasn't until then that Jazz noticed the girl in the room. A younger girl, looking to be around fourteen years old with bright pink hair that was done up in two super long ponytails and bright green eyes. Though she tried not to notice it, Jazz couldn't help but see the girl's chest. Her boobs were huge! How on Earth did a fourteen year old girl get a chest like that?

"Hello, I see we have a guest. I'm Jasmine Fenton, though everyone calls me Jazz. I'm afraid we are out of tea, but would you like some coffee?" Jazz asked the girl.

The girl shifted uncomfortably around in an extremely cute manner as she tried to keep meeting Jazz's eyes. "I'm... Myuu." The girl said weakly. "Ah... what's coffee?"

Jazz raised an eyebrow and glanced over at Danny. "Myuu is the daughter of the Dark Lord from the world Sam had been summoned too. After we... ah... defeated her father. He asked if we would take care of her and stop any of the people from taking out their revenge against him on her." Danny explained feeling a little awkward about talking about them killer the girl's father with his sister. "They didn't have coffee on Alayzard."

"Oh thank goodness. And here I was kind of worried that you brought a girlfriend home with you." Jazz said, wiping away imagined sweat in an overly theatrical display of relief. Myuu flushed bright red at the comment though Danny, being more used to teasing between siblings than the only child demon princess, didn't react at all. "A pity though, she's really cute."

"If you're done teasing, maybe I could get some kind of welcome home? Like dinner or something?" Danny said rolling his eyes.

"Fine, one half baked dinner coming up." Jazz said. "Do you have any special needs Myuu? Sam's a vegan, so we're pretty used to having to accommodate for peoples personal beliefs."

"Vegan?" Myuu said confused.

"It means she doesn't eat anything that came from an animal. She only eats plants." Danny explained.

"Oh... no I'm fine with any kind of food you can provide. Thank you for asking." Myuu said flushing a little in embarrassment of not knowing the local words too well.

"Are you sure this girl is the daughter of a Dark Lord? She's just so cute and innocent looking." Jazz said as she went to grab a few things out of the fridge.

"And Cujo?" Danny said with a raised eyebrow.

"Point taken." Jazz replied as she thought of the monster dog. So cute and fluffy, until he got too excited and grew into a massive beast the size of a monster truck. "So, what are you planning on doing with her?" The question hung awkwardly in the air.

"I... I don't want to be any trouble." Myuu said weakly.

"You're no trouble at all, but that's not really the problem here." Danny said with a sigh. "The problem is that you won't exactly blend in very well with a normal crowd, so people will think that you were changed by the 'Summoning Syndrome'. Meaning they will know that you've been to a world other than this one."

"Oh... is that bad?" Myuu asked confused. "I mean... you and the Lady Sam have both been to another world as well."

Jazz snorted. "The Lady Sam? Wow, I really want to know the story behind that." She said giggling. "But to answer your question, people who return to this world after being summoned are usual separated from the rest of the world by a group called Babel. So if people think that you are from another world, then you will be sent off there too."

"Sam and I both went missing, so our return will make it fairly obvious what happen. But in your cause, you don't have a history, so if you want we can dye your hair to make you look more human and you can live outside of Babel if you want. But going down that route you will have to give up your magic from now on." Danny explained. "The choice is your, I won't force you either way. If you choose to go with Sam and me to Babel, then we will continue to do our best to protect you. Otherwise I'm sure that my sister will be willing to put you up if you want to stay here instead."

"Will... will me not having a history be bad?" Myuu asked nervously. "What if people find out that I am not really from this world?"

"If you choose to stay here, then we can create a fake history for you to use, my friend Tucker is pretty good with that kind of thing, so you won't have to worry too much. And if you choose to go to Babel, then we can claim that you lost your memories while traveling between worlds. That way you won't have to worry about it. The people at Babel would probably be relieved since it would mean they won't have to deal with any family members crying about who their baby had been dragged away from home." Danny said.

"Speaking of which, I guess you have to leave again. Huh." Jazz said weakly as she placed some food down on the table. Danny nodded, not trusting himself to speak about it. "I'll start working on the request forms to enter Babel Island as a civilian." Jazz said with a sigh.

"Jazz..." Danny started, wanting to tell her not to. Wanting to tell her to keep with her dream of going to an top university. But he was never given the chance.

"Danny, you are the only family I have left. Being with you is more important that college. I'll just have to go to one of the universities on Babel Island. I'm sure the schools there are alright." Jazz said with a smile. She wasn't going to talk about one of the facts about being on Babel Island. Once in immigrate there, you are never allowed to leave.

Myuu was looking down at her food, not sure what to do or say. "So... I have to decide the rest of my life right now?" Myuu said, clearly getting the idea of just how in for it she was.

"Babel will probably find out about Sam's return by the end of the day, and mine by tomorrow. The agents will probably be here any day now to take us away. As soon as tomorrow morning. So if you have until then to decide. Sorry I can't give you more time than that." Danny said apologetically.

Myuu shifted around in her seat. "I... I don't know anyone else in this world. I... I'm scared." She admitted. "If I go. I can stay with you and Sam, right?" She asked. Danny nodded. "Than it's probably for the best if I go... If you are willing to have me that is."

"Oh you're so cute!" Jazz said pulling the girl into a hug out of no where, shocking the demon princess. "Danny, we're keeping her."

"...huh?" Danny and Myuu said together, not really sure they wanted to know what she meant.

"Since she doesn't have anyone else in this world, we will be her family. I always wanted a cute little sister." Jazz said. Danny thought back to all the times Jazz had forced him into pink dresses when he had been a little kid. Then he decided that he was going to work at repressing those particular memories again.

"If you want to keep her she is your responsibility. So make sure you clean up after her messes, and don't forget to bath and feed her." Danny joked, not that Jazz was even listening.

"We will go shopping, and play dress up, and go to the movies and do each other's hair..." Jazz ranted on.

"Do...Don't I get a say in this!?" Myuu shouted in panic. It might have been the first time that Danny had heard her raise her voice.

"Trust me when I say you don't. Once Jazz decides on something, she becomes a bit hard of hearing. Nothing you say or do will convince her otherwise. I'm told it is a family trait." Danny said thinking back to when Jazz had suddenly decided she was going to help Danny hunt ghosts. He added that to the list of memories to be repressed. Her stubbornness had made her beyond stupid and had nearly gotten them killed. Thank Clockwork she finally gave up on the idea of being in the field. "Speaking of dress up though, I'm pretty sure Myuu here could use some clothes to sleep in, and something that she can move around in tomorrow!" Danny said rather loudly in order to break through Jazz's fantasy spell.

The older girl squealed as she grabbed Myuu and dragged her in a shocked daze towards the stairs, the demoness glancing back at him with a look of betrayal. Danny just waved goodbye to her. It was something that needed to be done sooner or later, and Danny couldn't help the girl pick out new clothes.

Looking up out the window at the single moon in the sky and the stars he knew by heart, he gave a soft smile. The war was over and he was back in his own world, but the this was just the beginning. Tomorrow an even bigger ordial would began as Sam would start try to fulfill her childhood ambition, taking down the eight men and women who had used the power they gained from other worlds in order to assert their rule over the entire world. They would be taking their first step to bring down COCOON.

* * *

 **Jazz and Danny didn't have the same kind of tear filled reunion as Sam and her mother, but that was because Danny didn't worry about Jazz's reaction and Jazz believed that Danny was still alive.**


	4. Chapter 3 part 2

**I own nothing, not the characters, the space where this story exists, or even the eyes that you are using to read it. This is for entertainment purposes only, no money involved.**

* * *

Danny's eyes flicked back and forth between Sam and Myuu as they were being driven along on a black government car. The seven hour flight that preceded this relatively short car ride showed heavily on both of them.

Babel Island was located in the middle of the ocean just off the coast of Japan. The common language their was divided, since civilians who were willing to give up everything could come from anywhere around the world to live there, but that didn't really matter too much for the ex-summoned, as one of the affects of traveling between worlds was instant knowledge of languages. The affect applied, even if the person who went between worlds used the Infinity Map instead of the Otherworld Gates, so Danny and Myuu would have no trouble either.

Sam looked more that a little pissed off, having been dragged out of her bed at five in the morning by a bunch of morons in black suits. She had hardly had any time at all to reunite with her mother and father before the COCOON thugs had come to take them away from their homes and loved ones. She knew it was going to happen, but was one week with her family too much to ask? This complete injustices only furthered her determination to bring those bastards down.

Myuu on the other hand was absolutely terrified, the poor thing. That day marked the first time she had even been in a car. Which was a scary enough experience by itself, as she had no idea how it worked and the various things going on around it. But then she had to go from that car into an airplane. The feeling of flying without the use of wind magic, the heavily pressurized air, the cramped space, the looks she got from her bright pink hair and her big round... eyes. Myuu had looked as if she wanted dig a hole in the ground and start to cry in it until all the bad things went away.

Danny had tried to explain as much of this stuff as he could to her, explain that she was safe and they nothing bad would happen, but it was hard for the Demon Princess to accept that when the sound of the airplane's engines was screaming in her ears.

"You alright, Myuu?" Danny asked, hoping that getting her to talk would stop her shivers of panicked terror.

Myuu flinched but smiled. "I'm fine, really." She said in a cheery voice, though her body was still shaking.

"You are a really bad liar." Sam said with a sigh, causing Myuu to look even more down on herself. "Don't worry, most of this stuff is over. They are going to run tests on us, but after that we will be given an apartment and get to climb back into a comfortable bed."

"Tests? What tests?" Myuu said, sounding worried. "They... what if they find out that I'm not really a local."

"I wouldn't worry about that. You are far more human that Danny is." Sam said rolling her eyes towards Danny. "People assume that you become weird though whenever you get summoned, so any differences in your appearance and blood will just be blamed on the summoning."

"Are... are you sure?" Myuu asked weakly.

"If it will make you feel better, I'll possess the equipment and fudge all the results." Danny said with a smile. "I probably should do that anyways, so they don't see my results."

"You can do that?" Myuu asking in surprise.

"As long as they didn't think to create safety systems against it, then yes, I can." Danny said with a shrug. Technokinesis was not one of his more perficient skills, but he was able to get by with it as long as there was no spiritual entity or power working directly against him.

"See, nothing to worry about." Sam said, though her tone of voice was not too convincing. She gazed out the car window up at the giant Tower of Babel that seemed to disappear up into the sky. It was a symbol of complete dominance. A power that cannot be matched by any in this world.

To bad for them, Sam had never been one to just roll over easily. She would just have to inform them all of who the dogs were.

* * *

"Right this way." One of the agents said, trying to avoid eye contact as they led the kids up towards the massive glass doors of the tower. Myuu nearly jumped out of her skin as the door opened by itself with a loud swooshing sound.

A nurse in a pure white uniform stood on the other side of the door with a hollow smile on her face. "Welcome to the Tower of Babel. We are glad that you have decided to atten..."

"Cut the crap and lets get this over with." Sam said angrily as she stomped past the nurse, causing the woman to jump. "We all know that we aren't here willingly, so you need to get your heads out of your asses before you drowned in your own shit."

"Sam is really brave..." Myuu said in a bit of awe of the older girl.

"That's one of looking at it." Danny sighed as he started in after them. He stopped as his foot first crossed the threshold into the tower. A frown passed over his face as he felt a familiar feeling passing over him. He had just entered someone else's lair. A short glance at Sam told him that she hadn't noticed it.

"I... I'm sorry you feel that way." The nurse said, looking a little scared of the goth girl. "Please, follow me and we will get your physical done as quickly as possible." She said before continuing on.

Danny moved up next to Sam. "We just entered a bounded field." Danny mumbled to her.

She blinked in surprise. "Is it another ghost?" She mumbled back, seeing Danny shaking his head she frowned. "So, Babel has the power to make bounded fields. That's a little scary."

"Be careful. The normal laws of nature might not apply here. We are in enemy territory right now." Danny warned her as he glanced around the polished white corridors of the tower.

"We never thought this would be easy, but they don't realize that we are trying to undermine them yet. We have time to figure out what the rules are and make a plan around them." Sam whispered. That was the way of Team Phantom, gain intelligence on the enemy in order to take them down. Danny nodded as they were guided into an elevator. "Now, make sure you are ready to do your stuff on their computers. We don't need any loose lips out here."

* * *

Kyouya Hikami was not quite sure how to feel as he stared down at the unofficial screenings of the newest three subjects. The student council president had never heard of three people returning from the same world at the same time. All of them coming from the same home town and knowing each other before the summoning, even if one of them seemed to have amnesia. His ice blue eyes darted from the paper to a monitor and then back down to the paper.

Sam Manson, a strong willed civil protestor, bordering on anarchist. He wondered what a girl like her would think if she knew their real method of screening people.

The physicals and medical checkups were only a distraction from the real test. A sampling of their spiritual blueprint to gain an understand of the individual through a program that would form prophesies about their pasts, presents, and futures, as well as an insight into their fears, that could be used to control them. Though in truth, the information was often too hard to even understand, since it came in the form of cryptic messages.

The one in front of him right now was causing more than a little fuse among the members of the student council. "'True Hero'! 'Empress'! What is all this supposed to mean!?" Haruka Nanase demanded as the Vice President looked over the papers.

"I think it is pretty self explanatory. This lady is going to be in charge someday." Ryouhei Uesaki, the Secretary, said bluntly, knowing full well what kind of reaction this would bring. He always enjoyed it when Haruka got worked up.

Kyouya was hardly listening to their squabbling. He just kept reading over the lines.

...

In the World of Alayzard, you embarked on the path of a True Hero,

Even after you defeated the tragic Demon King, your battle is still not finished.

...

The you right now holds the blessings of life,

Only the will of the worlds will lead you onto a new height.

...

In the nearby future, the Empress will face a decision.

You mustn't let the darkness take your shadow.

...

It was cryptic as usual. But it seemed to point towards the girl as holding some form of greater power. And that wasn't the only strange thing in the new party. Kyouya glanced to the side at Danny Fenton's prophecy. It held only one word. 'Martyr.' A tragic individual indeed.

Danny Fenton would more than likely die, leading to some form of uprising of the Manson girl. The only question that remained was, what would she do?

All eyes went to Kyouya as he stood up. "Where are you going?" Haruka asked him.

Kyouya only smiled. "I'm going to meet our new Empress."


	5. Chapter 3 part 3

**I own nothing, not the characters, the space where this story exists, or even the eyes that you are using to read it. This is for entertainment purposes only, no money involved.**

* * *

Danny's eyebrow was twitching as he struggled to concentrate. The sound of the big screen TV, blaring some stupid welcoming seminar video about the 'summoning syndrome', was not helping him, nor were Myuu's whimpers or Sam's steady stream of curses towards this government and everyone in it.

But all the same, he bit down on his choice words for them and kept to his task. He knew better than to question Sam while she was having one of her moments, and it seemed like this was Myuu's first ever medical check up, and she felt violated. Danny himself had to admit that the nurses were more thorough than they probably needed to be.

"I'm in." Danny mumbled from his seat next to an ethernet plug. It had taken him a while to get through their systems while in human form from a remote access point, but he had done he located his and Myuu's files and replaced some of the genetic information and more questionable information with results that wouldn't make anyone raise an eyebrow. "Its done."

"About time." Sam grumbled as she started to pull off the tie that went with the school uniforms they had been shoved into after their medical examination and through the strangling device into a nearby garbage can.

"They didn't have to poke them so much." Myuu whined, her arms trying and failing to conceal her chest from sight. Even one of the large tops seemed to be struggling to hold in the smaller girl's bust.

Danny was trying to think of a way of consoling the girl when the door opened and two people that Sam would describe as 'meat head jocks', popped into the room. "About time!" Sam snapped angrily at them. "You going to take us to our dorms or not?"

One of the two nearly identical meat heads seemed to laugh. "You've got spirit, that's good. But their is one last test you need to do before we send you off to get settled down." The guys each had dark brown hair, though one was a military cut, while the other was less regimented if still a little short. It was the only feature that could tell them apart. They were both middle aged men with the kind of build you would expect to see in a wrestling ring. Most likely they were the equivalent of gym teachers here.

"Another one?" Myuu whined as she though of the poking and questioning she had just gone through.

"Yeah, after all, you have to take your placement exams to see what classes you'll be in." The second meat head said with a laugh.

This time it was Danny's turn to pale. He was clever enough and knew his way around a breadboard, but he couldn't pass a written exam to save his life. "Do... do we have time to study first? I mean, we just got back for another world. We need time." He said in a worried voice. Maybe he could talk Sam and Myuu into just flunking with him. No wait, Myuu was new to this world, just how much could she know about its science and history?

But then the instructors both broke out laughing. "It isn't that kind of exam, kid." One said with a shake of the head. "It's a combat test. We are going to see how well you fight. You'll each be fighting one of us so we can see what you're made of."

Danny didn't know whether to cry with relief, or for the lives of however had to go up against Sam. Restraint wasn't exactly her strong suit and she was more than a little pissed as it is. He could see the smirk spreading across the 'Goddess of Victory''s face as she moved to follow.

"Isn't it rather dangerous for us to be fighting? I mean... with our magic, we could really do some serious damage to you." Myuu said nervously. Even in sparring, their would be a good chance of injury or even death if anyone went too far. One wrong move, or a spirit barrier that is just a little too weak, and they could be in serious trouble. Myuu didn't think she knew magic that could fight someone without killing them. Even her wind magic was fairly deadly compared to most.

But the large men just started to laugh. "You don't have to worry. There is a protective barrier around all of babel that protests us from taking any real damage." One said waving off the girl's concern. "All the damage you would take just gets turned into low level bio feedback. So even though it will still hurt like the dickens, their isn't really any risk of death."

"Though if you take too much of a pounding, you will still pass out from the pain." The other one added.

"Explains the bounded field over the entire building." Danny mumbled to Sam. "Seems like a lot of trouble to go through to make something like that. Wouldn't a simpler solution be to just not fight each other?"

"Babel is supposed to serve to train you all to use your magic. Can't really do that if you can't fight." The first meathead said.

"In other words they want to make weapons out of us, big shocker." Sam said angrily.

"Here we are." An instructor said, as they stopped in front of a pair of massive steel doors. Pressing a few keys of a pad next to the door, it opened to reveal a giant Colosseum like stadium with a wall completely covered in weapons of nearly every shape and size. "Pick whatever it is that you want and we will get started."

Danny's eyes went over the weapons, wondering what he should take, trying to come up with a strategy to win without revealing his full strength. He saw Myuu going up and grabbing a broadsword, giving it a test swing.

"Nice choice." One of the instructors said with a nodded.

Danny didn't agree. With the field around them, any bladed weapon would be less useful than one that would rely on a heavy impact that would cause pain. You needed to generate enough pain in order to distract and knock out your opponent. So Danny went and grabbed a long chain with a heavy spiked ball on the end, checked the strength of the metal before grinning and returning to the teachers.

"Interesting." An instructor said, starring at the heavy ball. Then he noticed Sam hadn't bothered to go and look for a weapon. "Aren't you going to pick something?"

"To fight jokers like you? Not thanks, not needed." Sam scoffed. Danny quickly realized she was planning not to hold back with her magic, those idiots didn't stand a chance.

"Oh... alright then. Who's first?" One of the two men asked.

"Might as well be me." Danny said with a sigh, stepping forward with his chosen weapon. "So are you going to grab a sword or something? Or do I have to beat up an unarmed man?"

...

* * *

 **My students are finishing their finals, so I need to start grading them. Might finish this chapter off tonight if I still have the energy or I might work on it during my next class's final exam.**

 **The flail will not be Danny's final weapon. It is just something for this fight alone.**


End file.
